vmb unti iiitai 



Otis tetrax, Linne. 



Vernacular Names.— [Chota tiiur.] 



HE Butterfly Houbara, as Indian sportsmen in the 

 North-West have not inappropriately designated 

 the Little Bustard of Europe, is a regular and tolerably 

 abundant winter visitant to the northern portions 

 of the Trans-Indus Punjab. 



Cis-Indus, they can only be considered rare and 

 occasional stragglers. In December 1878, Colonel 

 Macleod, R.A., shot a fine male of this species, near Gurdas- 

 pur, and about the same time Mr. O. Greig shot a female at 

 Balawala on the bank above the Ganges Kadar in the Saharanpur 

 District ; and, though others must doubtless have occurred in 

 the submontane tracts of the Punjab and North-Western 

 Provinces, these are, I believe, the only instances on record of 

 their being brought to bag. 



Out of India, the Little Bustard is common in suitable locali- 

 ties in Southern Europe and Northern Africa, adjoining the 

 basin of the Mediterranean. It straggles to Northern Europe, 

 even to the British Islands and Sweden. It occurs, and very 

 numerously, in some places, in Syria, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, 

 Northern Persia,* Kabul and Northern Beluchistan, and through- 

 out the tract of country lying between the Caspian and Western 

 Yarkand, whence we have specimens from Yangihissar, Kashgar 

 and other places in the plains between these and Sanju. 



It does not appear to go north across the Tian Shan, or 

 eastwards into Mongolia or China ; neither Radde, Prjevalski, 

 nor David include it in their lists. 



The FLIGHT of this species is very different to that of our other 

 Bustards ; they often rise to a great height, and will flutter 

 and twist about in the air (though they can fly with considerable 

 rapidity and straight enough) in a way that has earned for 

 them the local trivial name above alluded to. Whilst on the 

 wing, they call continuously. 



* The birds seen on one of the Islands of the Persian Gulf by Blanford (Zool. 

 Pers. 287) were probably Houbara, which I have ascertained breed on some of 

 these. 



