24 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



is a subject of which very varied accounts have been written. 

 Apparently the unfortunate stragglers which have from time to 

 time visited England and have been promptly slain, must have 

 been very young birds. Yarrele records males of only 16 lbs. and 

 females of 9 lbs. to 10 lbs., whereas the males in Spain commonly 

 weigh between 20 lbs. to 30 lbs. and the females 12 lbs. to 18 lbs. 

 Professor Newton mentions 22 lbs. to 32 lbs. as the average 

 weight of European Bustards. The remarkable variations of 

 weight in birds shot out of the same flocks and in the same 

 localities lead me to believe that Bustards take very much longer 

 to reach maturity than is popularly imagined. Again, they seem 

 to vary enormously in weight according to the season of the year. 

 Out of a number of Bustards I have weighed and examined, those 

 killed in the winter months have averaged only about two-thirds 

 the weight of those killed in March and April. The smallest 

 Great Bustard I ever saw killed was a young female in the month 

 of February, and which weighed only 12 lbs. This bird must have 

 been at least 9 months old." 



" Six old male birds shot by a party of three guns, of which I 

 was one, in the month of April averaged over 34 lbs. each, the 

 heaviest being 37 lbs. ; no doubt the contents of the crops 

 accounted for some of this great weight. 



In " Unexplored Spain " Messrs. Chapman and Buck give much 

 the same weights. They say : " In weight, cock Bustards vary 

 from 20 to 22 lbs. in Autumn, up to 28 to 30 lbs. in April. The 

 biggest old males in spring reach 33 and 34 lbs,, and one we 

 presented to the National Collection at South Kensington weighed 

 37 lbs." 



"Hen-Bustards seldom exceed 15 lbs. at any season," 

 Sharpe gives the range of this magnificent bird as " Southern 

 Europe and Northern Africa, extending to Central Asia and N.-W. 

 India " and this range now includes Persia and Afghanistan. In 

 the latter country it was obtained by the Afghan Delimitation 

 Commission and in the former it has now been several times taken 

 and I have eggs also thence. 



To the east of this recorded range its place is taken by a very 

 closely allied species, Otis dyhowshii. This species, or more 



