OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 101 



and North-west Africa, and completely exterminated in Scandinavia. It is also 

 known as an accidental visitor to Asia Minor and North Persia, and as a straggler 

 to North-west India. Eastwards its range includes Turkestan and Northern 

 Afghanistan, but the precise limits are at present undetermined. 



Allied forms — in Bast Siberia (south of Omsk and the Amoor), Mant- 

 churia, Corea, and Japan, south to the Yangtze Kiang basin (where Mr. Styan 

 records it as common in winter), the Great Bustard is replaced by Otis dyhowsUi, 

 a very nearly allied species, which differs in being smaller in size (total 

 length, 34 inches), with a smaller and more slender bill, paler head and hind 

 neck, and grey lesser wing coverts. The Great Bustard has no other very close 

 aUies; and whether this eastern bird deserves specific rank seems somewhat 

 questionable. 



Habits. — The haunts of the Great Bustard are the vast plains and steppes 

 which stretch across Europe and Asia, the great grain lands which extend in 

 some parts of Asia for thousands of miles, treeless and bare, where the noble 

 bird can scaij a wide horizon and note the approach of enemies. The Great 

 Bustard is a thorough ground bird, and is rarely or never seen near trees. It is 

 a shy and wary creature, ever careful not to allow a close approach, is capable of 

 running quickly, and flies in a somewhat heavy, laboured manner, with slow and 

 regular beats of its ample wings. At all seasons the Great Bustard is a social 

 bird, but in winter it becomes more or less gregarious, and joins into flocks which 

 wander about the plains in quest of food. It is said that during the winter the 

 sexes separate, and that the males live in flocks by themselves. Even during 

 the breeding season several pairs of birds will feed in company, and all the 

 summer the immature and non-breeding birds remain gregarious. It is an early 

 migrant, in such districts where it is a bird of regular passage, reaching its 

 summer haunts in March or April. The food of the Great Bustard is almost 

 entirely composed of vegetable substances, grain, seeds, and the leaves and 

 shoots of herbage ; the bird, however, also eats insects, mice, lizards, and frogs. 

 The note of the male is likened by Mr. Seebohm to the syllable prunt ; and he 

 also states that, when alarmed, both sexes make a kind of hiss, although at other 

 times the female appears to be a remarkably silent bird. 



Nidification — Although the Great Bustard has been said to be poly- 

 gamous, there appears to be no direct evidence in confirmation of the statement ; 

 and Naumann, the great German ornithologist, who had ample opportunities of 

 observing this species, avers that it pairs early in spring. The male, when under 

 sexual excitement, elevates and draws the tail forward over his back, the head 

 and neck at the same time being retracted along the back, the wings are drooped, 

 all the smaller feathers being erected until the tail, head, and neck are almost 

 entirely concealed by the bristling plumage — almost every feather on end — and 



