BRITISH BIRDS 



Sub-Order OTIDES. 



Family OTIDIDiE. 



THE LITTLE BUSTARD. 



Otis tetrax, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 6i. 



The Little Bustard is an irregular straggler to the British Islands, usually 

 arriving during the winter months, and although found occasionally on the southern 

 coast of England, it occurs with greater frequency in the counties of Yorkshire, 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, whilst it has been recorded five times in Scotland and eight 

 times in Ireland. This species breeds in Central and Southern Europe and North 

 Africa, ranging eastwards as far as Western Siberia, and in winter reaches North- 

 west India. Usually inhabiting more southerly regions than its larger congener 

 the Great Bustard, it shows a partiality for rolling grass-lands and corn-fields 

 during the breeding season, where the nest, a slight hollow in the soil, lined with a 

 few straws or bents, is hidden among growing corn or some similar cover affording 

 concealment. The three or four eggs, usually a glossy olive-green, blotched with 

 dark brown, are laid early in May. 



The food consists of various herbs, seeds, insects, small mammals, and reptiles. 

 Colonel Irby, in his Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar, 2nd ed. pp. 259-260, 

 says: "The male Little Bustard in the breeding-season has a most peculiar call, 

 which can be easily imitated by pouting out and pressing the lips tight together and 

 then blowing through them ; the birds when thus calling seem to be close to you, 

 but are often in reality half a mile off. They must possess powers of ventriloquism, 

 as I have often imagined that they were quite close to me, and upon hunting the 

 spot with a dog found no signs of them anywhere near; indeed, at that season 

 it is sometimes as difficult to make them rise as a Landrail." 



Lord Lilford describes the nuptial display of the male in spring, when the bird 

 with dilated throat and partially extended wings may constantly be seen springing 

 two or three feet from the ground. After the nesting season the birds often 



IV. a 



