528 MACQUEEN’S BUSTARD. 
Swedish island of Oeland, one (out of a flock of six) in Schleswig, 
one in Poland, one in Silesia, one near Helsingfors in Finland, and 
one in Livonia towards the end of September 1880. In Italy two 
females were obtained near Rome in November and December 
1859; but the species occasionally met with in Malta, Sicily, and 
Southern Spain is the African Ruffed Bustard. In the Aralo- 
Caspian region Macqueen’s Bustard is resident, and eastward it can 
be traced to the steppes near Lake Balkash and to the Altai 
Mountains. On migration it crosses the Pamir to pass the cold 
season in Northern India, where it appears in September and leaves 
again in March; while in the semi-desert districts of Sirsa and 
Kurrachi, in Sind, it is sometimes so abundant that fifty have fallen 
to a single gun in a day. It is also found in Afghanistan, Baluchistan, 
and in Persia it breeds along the Gulf of Oman. Both the above 
species are generally known by the name “‘ Houbara.” 
Of late years a tolerable number of eggs have been received by 
Herr Tancré from the vicinity of the Altai range (lat. 50° N.), in 
the extreme south of the Russian province of Tomsk. All that I 
have seen are olive-brown with darker ‘blotches, and with less of a 
greenish tinge than is found in some of those of the Great Bustard : 
average measurements of 3 (a clutch) in the collection of Mr. E. 
Bidwell 2°55 by 1°7 in. Probably this species is not polygamous, 
for Mr. Hume never observed any preponderance of females over 
males. It frequents sandy wastes studded with low bushes, among 
which it runs with great rapidity, feeding largely on the small fruits 
of the Bev, the berries of the Grevia, and young shoots of lemon- 
grass, with a few grasshoppers or beetles. The specimen killed in 
Lincolnshire had its crop filled with caterpillars of the yellow-under- 
wing moth, small-shelled snails &c. 
The adult male has a crest of white feathers tipped with black, 
and a ruff, which is chiefly black, on the sides of the neck ; upper 
parts pale buff, finely vermiculated with black; tail washed with 
rufous, crossed with three black bars, and tipped with white ; throat 
pale grey; breast bluish-grey; abdomen white. Length 28 in.; 
wing 15°5 in. The female is a little lighter in colour, and has the 
crest and ruff less developed. In the African Ruffed Bustard, 
O. undulata, the ground-colour is more rufous, the vermiculations 
are coarser, the tail is broadly crossed with five dark bars, and the 
elongated feathers of the crest and lower throat are white. The 
latter species occurs on Lanzarote, the nearest of the Canary Islands 
to Africa. 
