Order CHARADRIIFORMES. 



Family OTIDID^ or BUSTARDS. 



Considerable diversity of opinion exists concerning the 

 affinities of this small family of birds. By some authorities they 

 are regarded as being somewhat closely allied to the Game Birds 

 and the Cuckoos ; by others they are associated with the Plovers, 

 the Cranes, and the Stone Curlews. The sternum contains two 

 notches on each side of the posterior margin. In the modifica- 

 tion of their cranial bones they are schizognathous, and most 

 nearly allied to the Rails and Cranes, more remotely to the 

 Plovers and Game Birds ; nasals holorhinal. In their pterylosis, 

 myology, and digestive organs they are also in close affinity with 

 the Rails and Cranes. 



The external characteristics of the Bustards are their 

 moderately long, stout legs, and short, stout bill, long wings and 

 short tail. The toes are short, and the hind toe is absent. 

 Primaries ten in number ; rectrices twelve in number. Moult 

 complete in autumn, partial in spring. Young hatched covered 

 with down, and soon able to run and feed. 



Number about twenty-six species; confined to the Old World; 

 most abundant in the Ethiopian region. 



