ORDER GRALL^. 449 



pear more or lesa rapidly in proportion to the facilities 

 afforded for their destruction, and leave nothing but their 

 names and descriptions in the pages of the traveller and the 

 natural historian. 



Of the second family of the grallae, the Piiessirostres, 

 the first genus is the Bustard. 



There are few birds with respect to whose nomenclature 

 more discordance has prevailed than in that of this genus. 

 The resemblance of the Latin words otis and otus, the first 

 employed to designate the bustard, and the second the owl, 

 has proved a fertile source of error and confusion in the his- 

 tory of the former. To the great bustard also various names 

 have been applied, such as avis tarda, raphos, anapha, 

 tetrix, starna, &c. Sometimes it has been made an aquatic, 

 sometimes a carnassial bird. With more reason it has been 

 attached to the gallinae ; but though it has the bill and the 

 heaviness of the latter birds, it differs essentially in having 

 but three toes, and the larger species of this genus come 

 naturally after the great running fowls, such as the ostrich 

 and the cassowary, while the smaller approximate more to 

 (Edicnemus and the Plovers proper. 



All the species of this genus are heavy birds, which fly 

 but little, though they shave the ground with rapidity when 

 unable to escape their pursuers by running. These timid 

 animals never perch, but fly with precipitation on the slightest 

 indication of danger. They take pleasure in sandy and stony 

 plains, distant from the neighbourhood of waters ; they 

 live on grains, and plants, and worms, and insects. One 

 male is sufficient for many females. The number of their 

 eggs is inconsiderable ; they lay in the midst of fields, in 

 some hollow place, and the young can run about and eat 

 alone, from the moment of their birth. The males, in the 

 greater number of species, differ from the females, by remark- 

 able ornaments, and more variegated plumage. 



vol.. vTii. t; (; 



