GREAT BUSTARD. 



425 



inches and a half: the first quill-feather shorter than the 

 second ; the second shorter than the third or the fourth, 

 which are the longest in the wing. 



The whole length of the female is thirty-six inches. 

 From the joint to the end of the wing, nineteen inches and 

 a half. The females generally do not exhihit the lateral 

 plumes from the chin, but in the Transactions of the Lin- 

 nean Society of Bordeaux, M. de Rochebrune has remarked 

 that when the female has arrived at her full growth, at the 

 age of three or four years, she has the same external cha- 

 racters as the male, only somewhat less developed. 



Mr. Selby observes that the young at a month old are 

 covered with a buff-coloured down, barred upon the back, 

 wings, and sides with black. 



The outline below is drawn, half the natural size, from 

 the breast-bone of a female of the Great Bustard. 



