The Great Bustard 2,47 



that, in the "garden" oi Amblyornis snbalaris, from South- 

 Eastern New Guinea, black appears to be the object of 

 admiration. {See p. 143.) 



The picture which accompanies these notes has been 

 drawn from the group of Bustards in the Natural History 

 Museum. These birds were presented to us by that well- 

 known naturalist Mr. Abel Chapman, who obtained them 

 himself in Southern Spain. The male was the largest he 

 ever shot, and weighed thirty-seven pounds. Mr. Chapman 

 tells me that even with all the pains bestowed upon the 

 mounting by our taxidermist, Mr. Pickhardt, the bird still 

 appears to him to be smaller than when he shot it, but 

 possibly the fact of its having been mounted from a pre- 

 served skin has prevented the acquisition of the full size to 

 which it would have attained if it had been mounted 

 from a fresh specimen. My readers must take it therefore 

 that, large as the male appears to be, in life he would have 

 looked even bigger, when showing himself off. 



The pouch of the Bustard is another wonderful phe- 

 nomenon. It is a bag lying between the outer skin and 

 the oesophagus, and its orifice is below the tongue. The 

 way in which the bird manages to distend the pouch is 

 not yet thoroughly understood, for it has no connection 

 with the lungs, and how it can get filled with air is a 

 mystery. In the Australian Bustard {Eupodotis aiistralis) 

 the late Professor Garrod found a dilation of the 

 oesophagus, but no pouch at all, though the bird, 

 when alive, had been able to produce a quite imposing 

 display. 



All the species of Bustard seem to indulge in an exhibi- 

 tion of showing off in the breeding season, and some of 

 them, like the Lesser Florikin of India [Sypheotis aurita), 

 select a piece of rising ground, from which in the early 

 morning or in dull weather they display themselves, spring- 

 ing in the air and uttering a note which is said to be more 



