122 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 



lucionensis. A very closely allied species, 0. australis, Gray, occurs 

 in Australia, where known, to some of the Colonists as the Wild 

 Turkey. Other species are Eup. nuba, Riipp ; E. ludivigi, Rii|»p; 

 E. caff r a, Licht. (Start ley i, Gray) ; E. Denhami, Children ; E. 

 arabs, L. (abyssimca, Gray) ; and E. kori, Burchell. 



The European Bustard, O. tarda, Linnaeus, belongs to restricted 

 Otis. It has a long white moustachial-tuft. The short limbs, short 

 bill, and general form give it quite a different aspect to that of the 

 Indian Bustard, and I can understand its being called a Turkey. It 

 is found throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and used to 

 be occasionally captured in England ; and its peculiar attitudes 

 during the courting season have been ably illustrated by Wolf 

 in his Zoological Sketches. 



Gen. Houbara, Bonaparte. 



Syn. Chlamydotis, Lesson. 



Char. — Legs rather short ; neck of the male furnished with a 

 ruff, and occasionally crested ; bill rather lengthened, much 

 depressed at the base. 



The ruffed Bustards are birds of moderate size, frequenting the 

 open sandy deserts, the type of which is Otis houbara of Gmelin, 

 from Northern Africa, which occasionally passes over into Spain. 

 One species is found in the North-western Provinces of India. 



39. Houbara Macqueenii, Gray. 



Otis, apud Gray — Hardwicke 111. Ind. Zool. — Gould, Birds 

 of Asia, pt. Ill, pi. 8 — 0. marmorata, Gray, Hardwicke, 111. 

 Ind. Zool. 1, pi. 60 (the female) — Tilaor, H. — Obarra in the 

 Western Punjab — Hurriana Florikin of Sportsmen in the N. W. P. 

 — figured in Bengal Sporting Magazine, 1833. 



The Indian Houbara Bustard. 



Descr. — Male, head beautifully crested, the crest consisting of 

 a series of lengthened slender feathers in the centre of the crown, 

 white with a black tip in front, wholly white behind; upper 

 plumage, including the neck, pale buff, somewhat albescent on the 



