326 CURSORES. OTIS. Great Bustarp. 
flavour of their flesh, forbid such an association, and bring 
them nearer to the order Grallatores. 
They inhabit open countries, living amongst the grass, 
corn, or low brushwood. ‘Their food is herbage, grain, and 
insects. ‘They run swiftly, and fly but seldom. They are 
polygamous; and the females, after fecundation, separate 
from the males. ‘Their moult is double, and the males of 
this genus are distinguished from the other sex by a brighter 
and more varied plumage, or by the accession of extraordi- 
nary ornaments. 
Great Bustard.—Otis Tarda, Linz. 
PLATE 64. 
Otis 'Tarda, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 264. 1.——Gmel. Syst. I. p. 722. sp. 1.—Lath. 
Ind. Ornith. v. 2. p. 658. sp. 1.—Raii, Syn. p. 58. A. 1.—Wiil. p. 129. 
t. 32.—_Briss. 5. p. 18. 1. 
L’Outarde, Buff: Ois. v. 2. p. 1. t. 1.—Zd. Pl. Eni. 245. male. 
Outarde barbue, Temm. Mam. d’Ornith. v. 2. p. 506. 
Der Grosse Trappe, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. v. 3. p. 1432.—_Meyer, Tasschenb. 
Deut. v. 1. p. 308.—Frisch, Vog. t. 106. female, and No. 106. Sup. the 
male. 
Great Bustard, Br. Zool. 1. No. 98. t. 44. male, bad figure.—Arct. Zool. 
2. No. 186.—Id. Sup. p. 63.—Will. (Ang.) p. 178. t. 32.—Lath. Syn. 4. 
p- 796.—Albin. 3. t. 38, 39.—Edw. t.79, 80.—Lewin’s Br. Birds. 4. t. 139. 
—WMont. Ornith. Dict.—Id. Sup.— Wale. Syn. 2. t. 173.—Puilt. Cat. Dor- 
set. p. 6.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, 1. p. t. 314. correct figure of male. 
This fine species, the largest of the British land birds (ha- 
ving been met with weighing from 28 to 30 lb.) was former- 
ly common in many parts of England’; and its range ex- 
tended at one period even to Scotland, as we learn from 
Hecror Bortius and Sir Rozert SizBaLp. Within the 
last thirty or forty years, however, the increased population 
of the country, and the consequent extension of agriculture, 
aided by the growth of luxury (the desire of gratifymg which 
increases as the object becomes difficult of attamment), have 
so reduced the breed, that it is extinct in many places where 
it was tolerably plentiful before the above-mentioned period. 
Its appearance is now, I believe, exclusively confined to some 
