348 ON THE OCCURRENCE OF A EIJFFED-BUSTAED. 



The tail-coverts extend down the central parts of the tail 

 nearly to the end of the rectrices. They are finely vermiculated 

 and banded on the upper parts with brownish black, the delicate 

 ornamentation extending to the margin of each feather. The 

 tail feathers are of a rich fawn colour, plain at their base 

 (where they are over-lapped by the tail-coverts), the exposed 

 feathers finely vermiculated and ornamented with three 

 irregular bands of bluish-grey. The outer tail feathers are 

 quite white at the tips. The tail feathers are, underneath, 

 of a pale fawn colour, becoming white at their ends, with 

 zig-zag markings and two broadish irregular bands of reddish 

 brown. 



In none of the figures which I have been able to examine is 

 the peculiar and delicate ornamentation of the plumage of this 

 Bustard correctly represented. The delicate vermiculations and 

 the black, cuspidate markings of the feathers of the back and 

 greater coverts becoming gradually fainter till they almost dis- 

 appear on the shoulders and margin of the wings, and the 

 peculiar irregular colour-bands of the tail have not yet been 

 accurately delineated, and would require the talent and graver 

 of a Bewick to depict them faithfully. 



There appears to be two races or geographically-distributed 

 forms of the Euffed-Bustard known — the one first described has 

 a white crest and is peculiar to Northern Africa, Arabia, and 

 occasionally straggling into Spain and Southern Europe, and the 

 other with a crest partly black and partly white found in India 

 and other parts of South-western Asia, which occasionally 

 straggles westward into ISTorth-western Europe and as far as 

 England. 



''In the African race or form of the Ruffed-Bustard {Otis 

 houhara) the top of the head is furnished or adorned with a 

 thick tuft of long, curved white plumes not very regularly 

 arranged ; on each side of the neck there is an irregular series 

 of hanging feathers, which for the greater part of their length 

 are black, with the basal parts white, and the longest of which 

 reach tlie middle of the breast ; the elongated plumes of the 

 crop are white. This Bustard is found in tlie Nortli of Africa 



