7$6 Notes on the Ornithology of Candahar. [Aug. 



Scinde from Bombay : these are hung up in tombs and mosques. 

 None of my informants had ever seen the bird. Called " Shootur- 

 moorgh," i. e. "Camel-fowl." 



74. [Houbara Macqueenii, (? Gray.)] These handsome birds are 

 common on the bare stony plains of Afghanistan, and sometimes oc- 

 cur in small packs of five or six together. They fly heavily, and for 

 short distances, soon alighting and running. They remain all the 

 year. [The " Dugdaoor," or Afghan Bustard. According to Burnes, 

 " one foot nine inches high, and forty-two inches from tip to tip." It 

 essentially resembles H. Macqueenii, Gray, of the outskirts of the 

 Scindian and other deserts of western India, except in the particular of 

 possessing a remarkable crest ; falling under the subdivision Houbara of 

 the Prince of Canino, which is distinguished by the splendid ornamen- 

 tal tufts that adorn the sides of the neck in both sexes, by the short- 

 ness of the legs, &c. The only other known species is the Otis hou- 

 bara, auct., of Spain and Barbary, now ranging as H. undulata, (Gm.) 



A superb male, kindly lent to me some time ago, by Capt. Duncan, 

 measured about 30in. in length, of which the tail measured lOin. ; wing 

 15-|-in. ; bill to forehead l|in., and to gape 2|in. ; tarse 3fin. Head 

 beautifully crested, a series of lengthened slender feathers rising along 

 the central line of the forehead and crown, and continued to the occi- 

 put ; the foremost of them shorter than those immediately following, 

 which latter to above the region of the eyes measured 3in. and up- 

 wards in length, and were remarkably firm in texture towards their 

 base, and moderately so near the tips, while those behind them to 

 the occiput, where they gradually diminish, are of much softer and 

 hair-like texture, with disunited webs : these latter are wholly pure 

 white ; and the former are white, with the terminal fourth black and 

 soft, the foremost of all having their extreme tips mottled buff, like the 

 shorter and ordinary feathers directly above the base of the bill. The 

 sides of the neck have also handsome ornamental tufts, divided like 

 the crest into two series : abroad band of silky black feathers (from 1| 

 to 2 inches long) commences below the ear-coverts, and extends for 

 some distance down each side of the neck, and behind the lower half of 

 this is thrown out the first or upper series of beautiful neck plumes, 

 which are Gin. long, and have the basal two-thirds white, with scanty 

 hair-like disunited webs, and their terminal portion expanded and spa- 



