812 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



than head. Nostrils holorhinal. Skin rather thin. Feathers thick, 

 contour feathers with small aftershafts, under the feathers, chiefly 

 on the breast, soft silky down, sort of powder-down, in most, at 

 least the Palsearctic species, pink. No fifth secondary (aquinto- 

 cubital), 2nd and 3rd or 3rd and 4th or 5th primaries longest, inner 

 secondaries but little shorter than primaries. 18 to 20 rec trices. 

 Tarsus and bare portion of tibia with reticulate scales, no hind toe. 

 Nails flattened, soles of feet wide. 



Genus OTIS L. 



Otis Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 154 (1758 — Type by Linnean 

 tautonymy and subsequent designation, Gray, 1840, O. tarda). 



Head not definitely crested, bill shorter than head, at base 

 wider than high. Nostrils free. Middle toe with claw about half 

 length of tarsus or little more. Sexes different. (Bustards have 

 been split into about a dozen genera, mostly on male characters 

 only or for other insufficient reasons, it is therefore, without a 

 review of the whole family, difficult to say how many species should 

 be placed in the genus Otis.) 



OTIS TARDA 



473. Otis tarda tarda L.— THE GREAT BUSTARD. 



Otis Tarda Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i. p. 154 (1758 — Poland, Orient, 

 Belgium, England. Restricted typical locality : Poland). 

 Otis tarda Linnaeus, Yarrell, in, p. 193 ; Saunders, p. 523. 



Description. — Adult male. Winter. — Head and neck all round 

 ash-grey, chin whitish, (some elongated moustachial feathers about 

 50 mm.), feathers of centre of crown somewhat elongated and narrow 

 with blackish, and some rufous, central streaks and tips : base of 

 back of neck rusty -chestnut ; whole of rest of upper -parts cinnamon- 

 rufous broadly and closely barred black, back and upper tail-coverts 

 rather more rufous and black bars narrower ; upper-breast ash-grey 

 as throat but feathers at sides with varying amount of cinnamon- 

 rufous with some black spots ; whole of rest of under -parts including 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts white, but coverts along edge of 

 wing ash-grey ; tail-feathers with white bases and tips, broad black 

 subterminal band (not always across inner web), and between this 

 and white of base outer webs cinnamon-rufous usually with some 

 black zigzag lines and inner webs often mostly white washed rufous 

 but sometimes as outer webs, outer feathers white with subterminal 

 band greyer (varying), two central pairs much as upper tail-coverts 

 but with pale buffish centre at tip ; primaries brown, paler on inner 

 webs which have white bases while outer webs have ash-grey ones, 

 shafts straw-colour, inner feathers blackish with white bases ; 

 secondaries with white proximal halves and brown-black distal 

 halves, black decreasing on inner feathers, and innermost with only 

 narrow black tips ; primary-coverts ash-grey, tips mottled darker 



