120 THE BIRDS OF AUSTKALIA 



Above ashy brown, with dusky shaft-lines to the feathers; upper 

 tail-coverts freckled; a broad dark band across the wing, followed by one 

 of white; tail ashy brown, with a black band at the end, before which 

 is a white band; face white; throat white; breast ashy; remainder of 

 under surface white with tawny tinge. Total length 19 inches, culinen 3, 

 wing 10.8, tail 4.3, tarsus 3.3. 



Nest a depression usually scraped out under a bush and close 

 to the shore. Usually only one egg is laid, of a grey colour, 

 blotched and marked with dark olive. It measures about 2.55 

 X 1.76 inch. 



Family Otididce. 

 Large land birds with turkey-like form, flattened, blunt bill, 

 stout legs and claws. Tail quills 16 to 20. 



Genus Eupodotis. 

 Feathers of neck elongated. "Wing three times longer than 

 tarsus. 



The Australian Bustard. 



' Eupodotis australis. 



Australia. 



Above dull sandy buff, everywhere finely lined with blackish and 

 shaded with slaty grey; greater coverts black with white tips, inner ones 

 mottled; primaries slaty grey; tail like back, but banded and mottled; 

 crown of head and nuchal crest black; under surface white. Total 

 length about 48 inches, wing 26, tarsus 7.2, culmen 3, tail 10.5; weight 

 up to 181bs. 



Lays either one or two eggs on the bare ground in open 

 country. They are olive in colour, sometimes with a bluish tint 

 obscurely smeared, generally in a longitudinal direction, with 

 olive-brown. They measure about 3.23 x 2.28 inch. 



These splendid birds live almost entirely on the ground; 

 consequently their young are often destroyed by foxes. They 

 are now scare in Southern Australia, what with rabbit poison, 

 foxes and the uridiscrimiiiating gun. At times when crammed 

 with grasshoppers, which they are doing their best to destroy, 

 they fall victims to the stick of the ungrateful but hungry 

 settler. 



