Otis tarda, Linne. 



Vernacular Names.— Wom 



NCE, and once only, as yet, has the Great Bustard 

 of Europe been obtained within the limits of the 

 British Empire in the East. 



On the 23rd of December 1870, a couple of my 

 collectors, who were working at Mardan, under the 

 direction of Dr. J.A.Johnson, then of the Guides, came 

 across a party of Bustard in some fields of mustard 

 and giant millet, belonging to Hashtnagar and just north 

 of the Kabul River. The birds were very shy, but my old 

 jamadar succeeded, by driving a buffalo in front of him, in 

 getting within shot and knocking over a female. 



This Hashtnagar is within a few miles of the very most 

 north-westerly point of British India proper, and is in lat. 34 

 N., and long. 71 45' E. 



This party of Bustard did not leave the neighbourhood for 

 some weeks, but they were so wary that, despite all the efforts 

 of many sportsmen, Native and European, no second specimen 

 could be obtained ; and notwithstanding repeated subsequent 

 enquiries from officers stationed at Mardan, Michni and Shab- 

 kadar, in the midst of which Hashtnagar lies, I have never been 

 able to learn that the Great Bustard has again revisited the 

 locality. 



Hutton did not meet with this species in Affghanistan, nor 

 has it as yet been recorded (though it may occur there) from 

 any part of Persia, east of the Caspian. Its range may 

 be roughly said to embrace nearly the whole of Europe, 

 except the more northern portions (it used to be not uncommon 

 in Great Britain, though now extinct there), the most northerly 

 parts of Africa, (Algeria and Morocco), Asia Minor, North-West 

 Persia, and probably nearly the whole of Asia, between the 38th 

 and 60th parallels of north latitude, as far east as the Bureja 

 Mountains (Radde,) and the plains of Northern and Central 

 China, (David). Prjevalski met with single birds in the Great 

 Gobi Desert, and found them breeding about Lake Hanka. 



In Europe they are seen at times in flocks or droves of fifty 

 and upwards, and very commonly in parties of considerable size ; 



