INTBODUCTION. 



47 



After this short excursion amongst Bii'ds of difEerent distant 

 lands we may return to more familiar forms. Eirst of these 

 may be mentioned a Bird which was common enough in England 

 a hundred years ago, though it is now but a rare visitant. This 

 is the Bustard (Otis tarda, fig. 48), a large stout Bird, which may 

 be taken as a type and representative of a group of six-and-twenty 

 species which are entirely confined to the Eastern Hemisphere, 



Kg. 46. 



The Horned Screamer {Palamedea eornuta,). 



including Austraha, though there are none in Madagascar or 

 the Malay Archipelago. Some Bustards seem to have lingered 

 in England tiU 1845, although they are said to have deserted 

 their accustomed haunts on Salisbury Plain about 1810. They, 

 however, occasionally visit us, and in the winter of 1870- 

 1871 no less than twelve were seen — three on Salisbury Plain 

 once more, and seven in North Middlesex. The Bustard is a 



