ON THE OCCURRENCE OE A liUFFKB BUSTARD. 349 



and is not rare in the neiglibourhood of Tripoli and Constantino. 

 It is found as a migrant in Spain and Portugal, also in Turkey 

 and the Archipelago." 



" The Asiatic and Arabian form or race of the Ruffed-Bustard 

 [Otis Macqueeni, J. E. Gray and recent authors) has the top 

 of the head ornamented with a small tuft of long curved 

 feathers, white, or white at their base and black for the rest of 

 their length to their ends ; on each side below the parotic 

 region there extends an irregular tuft of feathers, of which the 

 upper ones are black and many of the lower ones white, the 

 longest of which extend hardly to the lower part of the 

 neck ; the long feathers of the crop are greyish or grey. 

 This form of the Euffed Bustard is found in Asia, chiefly in 

 Persia, Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and other parts of India, also 

 in Arabia, and more rarely in Turkey and the West of Europe. 

 It is said to have been found in Belgium, Austria, and 

 Germany, and once before in England in October, 1847, as 

 mentioned above." 



Until Mr. J. E. Gray separated the Asiatic form as a new 

 species both forms were included under one species by all the 

 older naturalists, but since then, recent writers excepting G. R. 

 Gray (Cat. Brit. Birds, 1863) have referred to Macqueen's 

 Bustard as if it were a well-defined and essentially-distinct 

 species. Prince Bonaparte has gone a step further, and appar- 

 ently because these two forms are recognized as species by some 

 authors he has separated the Ruffed-Bustard from the genus Otis, 

 under the generic term Honiara. There are not many known 

 species of Bustard, but unfortunately most of the species have 

 been taken as types of new genera, so that the number ef genera 

 and species is about equal. In such an interesting group as the 

 Bustards, where every species seems to be more strongly marked 

 than usual, this practice of breaking up a genus into numerous 

 genera can serve no good purpose, but tends to destroy and limit 

 the geographical distribution of the members of the group. 



The Ruffed-Bustard is one of the rarer casual or accidental 

 visitors to the IN'orthwest of Europe and the British Islands, 

 driven here no doubt by stress of weather or other untoward 



