LITTLE BUSTARD. 587 



OTIS TETRAX. 

 LITTLE BUSTARD. 



(Plate 23.) 



Otis minor, Briss. Om. v. p. 24 (1760). 



Otis tetrax, lAnn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 264 (1766) ; et auctonun plurimorum — Latham, 



Temminck, Naumann, Dreaaer, Saunders, &c. 

 Tetrax campestris, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. Sre. Brit. Mm. p. 28 (1816). 

 Otis tetrao, Macgill. Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 40 (1846). 



The Little Bustard was first described as a British bird from a female 

 taken in the county of Cornwall, and exhibited at a meeting of the Royal 

 Society of London in 1751 ; but as there did not happen to be a Fellow of 

 the Society then present who was able to identify the bird, the Secretary 

 sent it to Edwards, who figured and described it in his ' Gleanings of 

 Natural History/ p. 89, pi. 251. Edwards's plate is dated 1754, but his 

 book was not published until 1758, although a paper on the occurrence 

 of this bird in England appeared in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' 

 for 1754. Since then it has occurred in our islands on an average 

 every other year. As nearly all these examples were obtained during 

 winter, and as there is no evidence that this bird ever bred in this 

 country, it must be included amongst the list of accidental stragglers to 

 our shores during that season. Most of these occurrences were in the 

 eastern and southern counties. It appears to have occurred most fre- 

 quently in the counties of York and Norfolk, but four examples are 

 recorded from the east coast of Scotland and two from Ireland. It was 

 especially abundant in the winter of 1874r-75 (^Zoologist,' 1875, pp. 4339, 

 4369) . The last recorded visit of this bird to our islands was in December 



1880, when two examples were obtained in Devonshire (Mathew, ' Zoologist,^ 



1881, p. 58); but my good friend Gaetke writes to me that a male in the 

 plumage of the second year was shot on Heligoland on the 27th of June, 

 1883. 



The Little Bustard has a more restricted range than its larger congener. 

 In Spain and Portugal it is more numerous, and has recently become so 

 in Central France; but in Germany it is very rare, and can only be 

 regarded as an accidental straggler north of the valley of the Danube, 

 though it occasionally strays as far as Denmark and South Scandinavia. 

 In Russia and West Siberia it is common on the steppes up to about 

 lat. 55°, and ranges eastwards as far as lake Saisan. It breeds in the 

 plains of North-west Africa, but is said to pass southwards in autumn to 

 winter n some of the more remote oases of the Sahara. In the moun- 



