342 The Crane-like Birds 



primaries blackish brown and the remainder of the wing white, as are the three 

 outer tail-feathers. The head is gray and provided on the cheeks with tufts 

 of long, whisker-like feathers, which turn backward and downward ; the lower 

 throat is orange-chestnut, which forms a band across the fore neck, while the 

 sides of the upper breast are rufous, barred with black, and the remainder of the 

 under parts pure white. The female lacks the whiskers on the sides of the face 

 as well as the rufous bands on the breast. This species was once a common 

 and conspicuous bird in many of the more open districts of England, but has 

 been exterminated as a resident for nearly three quarters of a century, occurring 

 at the present time only as a rare straggler from the open country of Champagne 

 or Saxony. It was once quite widely distributed over Europe, but is now very 

 rare in France and Greece, no longer known in Scandinavia, and only to be found 

 commonly in central and eastern Europe, central Asia, and northern Africa, 

 although in the latter country it is becoming scarcer. In winter they visit India, 

 during which time they associate in flocks of considerable size ; but on the approach 

 of spring they break up into pairs and resort to the great steppes and plains, 

 either barren or under cultivation, for the purpose of rearing their young. At 

 this season the male has the curious habit known as "showing off," which con- 

 sists in inflating the throat pouch before mentioned until the ends nearly reach 

 the ground, and at the same time spreading and raising the tail until it almost 

 touches the neck, and elevating the wings and erecting the individual feathers 

 until the bird looks like a huge ball of rumpled-up feathers. In this attitude it 

 totters and struts about before the female in an exceedingly grotesque manner. 

 It is also very pugnacious at this season, attacking others of its kind and even, 

 it is said, human beings. The object of the gular pouch has been much specu- 

 lated about, it formerly being supposed that it was for the purpose of carrying 

 water to the female and young on the dry plains, but it has been definitely settled 

 that it is simply an adjunct in the " sho wing-off " process, and at the close of 

 the nesting season so completely disappears that its very existence has been denied 

 again and again. It is not present in the female at any season. In a related 

 Australian species the same effect is produced by the enormous dilation of the 

 esophagus, there being no special sac, or pouch. The food of the Great Bus- 

 tard consists principally of seeds, grain, and the tender shoots of various plants, 

 but occasionally of insects, reptiles, and small mammals. The nest is simply a 

 slight hollow scratched in the ground, usually in an open or grassy situation 

 wherein are deposited the two or three large spotted eggs. In eastern Asia 

 there is a second smaller and grayer species (O. dybowskii). 



Little Bustard. An allied species which ranges from southern Europe and 

 northern Africa throughout central Asia is known as the Little Bustard (Tetrax 

 tetrax}. It is much smaller than the last, being only about seventeen inches long, 

 and is without the whisker-like feathers on the cheeks, but possesses a full tuft 

 of elongated plumes on the nape and hind neck. In color it is sandy buff above, 

 coarsely vermiculated with black, and mainly white below, with two broad bands 

 of black across the lower neck and breast. The female is lighter colored and is 

 without the black bands in front. After nesting in the northern part of their 



