392 



yellowish grey with a dull greenish tinge. Total length about 26 inches, culmen 1'8, wing 14'3, 

 tail 8'5j tarsus 3'6. 



Adult Female (Laghouat) . Resembles the male, but is smaller, the crest is much less developed, and the ruff' 

 does not extend so far up the neck. Total length about 23 inches, culmen l - 75, wing 13 - 7, tail 8'3, 

 tarsus 3 - 5. 



By many authors the present species and McQueen's Bustard have been treated as specifically 

 identical; and there is consequently some little difficulty in correctly defining its range ; but, so far 

 as I can ascertain, it inhabits the Mediterranean subregion, ranging eastward as far as Armenia, 

 to the eastward of which it is replaced by Otis macqueeni. 



It is somewhat remarkable that the various examples of Ruffed Bustards which have been 

 obtained in Northern and Central Europe as rare stragglers should in almost every instance have 

 proved to be the eastern species, and not the true African Houbara, which latter, so far as I can 

 ascertain, has not been satisfactorily shown to have occurred further north than the vicinity of 

 the Mediterranean. Dr. Companyo says that a single specimen, too much damaged for preserva- 

 tion, was brought to the market of Perpignan many years ago ; Messrs. Degland and Gerbe state 

 that it occurs in Portugal, but give no authority ; and Professor Barboza du Bocage, who includes 

 it in his list of the birds of that country with a note of interrogation, says that it may possibly 

 occur there as a rare straggler. Mr. Howard Saunders, however, informs me that he has 

 examined two specimens obtained in Spain — one near Malaga, and the other near Seville, but 

 that it can only be looked on as a rare visitant. It has also been met with in Italy ; for Count 

 Salvadori states that two females were obtained not far from Eome, at the end of November and 

 on the 16th December, 1859, during the prevalence of strong southerly winds — one of these 

 specimens being in the Museum of the University of Rome, and the other in the collection of 

 the Marquis Massimiliano Lezzani. There is also a specimen in the Museum of Syracuse, 

 which is supposed to have been obtained in the island of Sicily ; and Mr. C. A. Wright, who 

 records it as quite an accidental visitant to Malta, says that about thirty years ago a male 

 specimen was obtained there during a storm. According to Dr. Kriiper it is only a rare and 

 accidental straggler in Greece ; and though Degland and Gerbe state that it occurs in Turkey, I 

 do not find any specific instance on record of its capture there. Professor von Nordmann, 

 however, states that during the five years he collected in Southern Russia it was once obtained 

 on the steppes of the Don ; but it is possible that the specimen in question may have been 

 McQueen's Bustard. It is stated to occur in Asia Minor ; and Canon Tristram, who met with 

 it in Palestine, states (Ibis, 1868, p. 321) that it is very common in the Jordan valley, where he 

 saw it day after day in small flocks, but never succeeded in getting within shot, except when 

 without a gun. I have not been able to examine a specimen from Asia Minor or Palestine ; but 

 there appears to be no doubt that the species found there is the true Houbara ; for De Pilippi 

 says that two examples obtained by him at Djulfa, in Armenia, were certainly not Otis macqueeni, 

 but Otis undulata. 



It is met with in North-east Africa, and, according to Captain Shelley, is plentiful in most 

 parts of Northern Africa, frequenting the desert, and ranges, he believes, throughout Egypt and 

 Nubia. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun,, informs me that it occurs at the Fayoom, and that the overseer 



