416 STRUTHIONTD^E. 



OTIS. Generic Characters. Bill moderate, straight, depressed at the base, the 

 point of the upper mandible curved. Nostrils a little removed from the base, 

 lateral, oval, and open. Legs long, naked above the tarsal joint. Toes three 

 all directed forward, short, united at the base, and edged with membrane. Wings 

 of moderate length, in form rather rounded ; the third quill-feather the longest. 



THE GREAT BUSTARD is a bird of such interest as well 

 as magnitude, that every individual capture becomes a sub- 

 ject for ornithological record. Dr. Turner, who wrote in 

 1544, includes it among his English birds. In the printed 

 catalogue of the contents of the Tradescant Museum, pre- 

 served at South Lambeth, in 1656, is, " The Bustard, as 

 big as a Turkey, usually taken by greyhounds on New- 

 market Heath ; " and Merrett, in his Pinax rerum natura- 

 lium Britannicarum, in 1667, includes the Bustard as taken 

 on Newmarket Heath and about Salisbury. Montagu 

 notices some instances of the occurrence of this bird in 

 Devonshire, and says that he had seen them in Wiltshire. 

 White of Selborne in that portion of his Journal published 

 by Mr. Jesse in the second volume of his Gleanings in 

 Natural History, says, "Spent three hours of this day, 

 November 17, at a lone farm-house, in the midst of the 

 downs between Andover and Winton. The carter told 

 us that about twelve years before he had seen a flock 

 of eighteen Bustards on that farm, and once since only 

 two." White adds in another place, <c Bustards when 

 seen on the downs resemble fallow deer at a distance. 11 

 In Daniel's Rural Sports, it is stated, " that on the 29th of 

 September 1800, Mr. Crouch of Burford shot a hen 

 Bustard on Salisbury Plain. This bird was killed at 

 the distance of forty yards with a common fowling-piece 

 and with such shot as is generally used for partridge- 

 shooting. There were two other Bustards in company 

 with the one shot, neither of which appeared to be hurt. 11 

 Markwick in his Catalogue of the Birds of Sussex, pub- 



