156 BUFFED BUSTARD. 



Silesia, Dalmatia, Turkey, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. 

 It is found especially in the north of Africa, being common in plains 

 between the mountains and the coast in the neighbourhood of Tripoli, 

 Tunis, and Constantine. Canon Tristram says it occurs throughout 

 the Sahara, but becomes rare in the south, though most abundant 

 about the Dayats, and to the edge of the Chebkha M'zab. It is also 

 found in Arabia. 



Salvador! (Fauna d' Italia) writes of this bird: — "Wright says (Ibis, 

 1864, p. 140,) that about twenty years ago a male bird was taken in 

 Malta during a tempest. Also not very far from Rome two females 

 were killed, one during the latter part of November, 1869, and the 

 other on the following 16th. of December. At this time strong south 

 winds prevailed. The first was given to the Zoological Museum of 

 the University of Home; the other is preserved in the collection of 

 Maximillian Lezzani, an enthusiastic ornithologist. Bonaparte supposes 

 that the Houbara may have been captured in Sicily, and Mr. Saunders, 

 and more recently Professor Doderlein, mention an individual preserved in 

 the Museum of Syracuse, as having been taken in that neighbourhood." 



In the first volume of the "Ibis," page 284, Canon Tristram has 

 given a most interesting account of the Houbara, or, as Temminck 

 tells us we ought to spell it, the Hubara Bustard, and he has gone 

 at some length into details of Falconry as pursued by the Arabs. I 

 need make no apology for quoting the following long extract from this 

 graphic and interesting descrijDtion. The Saker Falcon, which the 

 writer says is found more in the desert, and the Lanner Falcon, (Ibis, 

 vol. i., p. 284,) are those which are chiefly used by the Arab sportsmen; 

 and they prize them so highly that £40 was ofiered in vain for a live 

 specimen. 



"The Arab Sheiks," he says, "pursue the sport of Falconry with 

 all the zeal, skill, and science of the ^ noble mysterie' of our ancestors. 

 The villein who presumed to raise his head against the king's deer 

 was not more certain of condign punishment from the Norman, than 

 the plebeian Sehaur who should dare to cast a hawk in the Sahara. 

 No Aga or Sheik of high degree ever moves for war, business, or 

 pleasure unattended by his falconers, who are his confidential lieu- 

 tenants. The care of three Falcons is considered sufficient employment 

 for one falconer with an assistant; and on the march one or two of 

 these important personages follow, motinted immediately behind the 

 Sheik, with a hooded Falcon on the wrist, and one perched on each 

 shoulder. The Houbara Bustard is the favourite quarry; but Eagles, 

 Kites, Sand Grouse, (and in the case of the Saker Falcon, the gazelle,) 

 afford equal sport to the huntsman. 



