Class II. LESSER BUSTARD. 379 



Otis Tetrax. 0. nigro rufo La petite outard. Brisson av. 2. Lesser. 



alboque variegata, subtus al- v. 24. Hist, d'ois. ii. 40. 



ba, capite juguloque laevi. PL Enl. 10, 25. 



Lath. Ind. orn. 6bQ. id. syn. Otis Tetrax. Gm. Lin. 725. 



iv. 759. id. Sup. i. 226. Arct. Zool. i. 375- 

 The French Canne-petiere. 



Wil. orn. 179. 



JlHERE are three or four instances of this 

 species having been shot in England, but the 

 specimens I have seen have all been female. 

 Whether they were accidental stragglers from 

 the continent, or whether they breed here, and 

 the male has escaped the sportsman's notice, is 

 not yet ascertained.* 



This bird is about the size of a pheasant. 

 The male, which I have seen in France, varies 

 much in the colors of the neck from the female, 

 being black, marked transversely above and be- 

 low with a band of white. The crown of the 

 head black and ferruginous ; the back, scapu- 

 lars, and coverts of the wings, varied with black 

 and ferruginous lines; the quil feathers black 



* Dr. Latham in the supplement to his Synopsis p. 226, ob- 

 serves that the late Mr. Tunstall had in his possession a speci- 

 men, shot in. Sussex, which had the plumage of a female, but on 

 dissection proved to be a male bird.f Ed. 



f One was shot within three miles of Ramsey, Hants, Jan. 15, 

 I8O9, believed to be a female from its plumage. J. L. 



