THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 25 



properly speaking sub-species, has no rufous breast-band in the 

 male and in that sex there is also a band of white or greyish white 

 formed by the median wing-coverts. The female differs from the 

 female of Otis tarda, if at all, in having the head a somewhat 

 darker grey. 



In India the Great Bustard has been obtained on only four 

 occasions ; on one of these, two females having been shot, on the 

 other three occasions single females. 



It was first obtained by Hume's collectors in 1870 and Hume 

 thus records the event : — " Once, and once, only as yet, has the 

 Great Bustard of Europe been obtained within the limits of the 

 British Empire in the East. 



" On the 2ord of December 1870, a couple of my collectors, who 

 were working at Mardan, under the Direction of Dr. J. A. Johnson, 

 then of the Guides, came across a party of Bustard in some fields 

 of mustard and giant millet, belonging to Hashtnagar and just 

 north of the Kabul river. The birds were very sh}^, but mj old 

 jamadar succeeded, by driving a buffalo in front of him, in getting 

 within shot and knocking over a female. 



"This Hashtnagar is within a few miles of the very most 

 north-westerly point of British India proper, and is in lat. 34 

 N. and long. 7-45' E. 



" This party of Bustard did not leave the neighbourhood for 

 some weeks, but they were so wary that, despite all the efforts of 

 many sportsmen, Native and European, no second specimen could 

 be obtained ; and notwithstanding repeated subsequent enquiries 

 from officers stationed at Mardan, Michni and Shabkadar, in the 

 midst of which Hashtnagar lies, I have never been able to learn 

 that the Great Bustard has again revisited the locality." 



After this, its next record is that by Col. Fooks, I. M.S., in the 

 columns of The Field of the 11th February 1911, to which article 

 my attention was drawn by Capt. A. H. Mosse. Col. Fooks' 

 interesting note is as follows : — 



" Great Bustard shot in India.. — The Great Bustard is a very 

 rare visitor to India, only one specimen having been shot in Dec- 

 ember 1870. Now, after forty years, two others were shot on 

 January 8, b)'- a duffadar of the 15th Lancers near the place where 



