THE GREAT BUSTARD. 



287 



transversely barred with black, and bright rust-color. The bel / m 

 white : and the tail, consisting of twenty feathers, is barred with red 

 and black. The legs are dusky. On each side of the lower mandible 

 of the bill there is a tuft of feathers about nine inches long. 



The female is not much more than half the size of the male. The 

 top of her head is of a deep orange, and the rest of the head brown. Her 

 colors are not so bright as those of the male, and she wants the tuft 

 en each side of the head. 



There is one very essential distinction between tho male and the 



female of this spe- 

 cies. The former 

 is furnished with 

 a sac or pouch, 

 situated in the fore 

 part of the neck, 

 and capable of 

 containing more 

 than two quarts of 

 water. The en- 

 trance to this 

 pouch is immedi- 

 ately under the 

 tongue. This sin- 

 gular reservoir was 

 first discovered by 

 Dr. Douglass, who 

 supposes that the 

 bird fills it with 

 water, to supply 

 its thirst in the 

 midst of those ex- 

 tensive plains 

 where it is accus- 

 tomed to wander. 

 The Bustard like- 

 wise makes a fur 

 4 ther use of it, in 

 defending itself 

 against the attacks 

 of birds of prey : 

 on these occasions 

 it throws out the water with such violence, as not unfrequently to 

 baffle the pursuit of its enemv. 



This bird makes no nest, but the female lays her eggs in some hollow 

 place of the ground, in a dry corn field ; these are two in number, as 

 big as those of a goose, and of a pale olive brown, marked with spots 

 of a deeper color. If, during her absence from the nest, any one handle 

 or even breathe upon the eggs, she immediately abandons them. The 

 roung ones follow the dam soon after they are excluded from the egg, 

 but they are not capable foi some time of flying. 



GRKAT BCSTARD. MALE. 



