ILLUSTRATIONS OF FOREIGN OOLOGY.* 

SYPHEOTIDES BENGALENSIS. 
Aprin, 1850. 
THE Bustards compose a well marked family of birds, intermediate 
in affinity to the Ostrich and Rhea on the one hand, and the Cha- 
radriade on the other. They have exactly the gait and carriage of 
the Ostriches; and their Pressirostral} affinity is indicated by the 
structure of the skeleton, and even by the mode of flight, by the 
flavour of the flesh, by the paucity and colouring of the eggs, and 
by the seasonal changes of plumage which some of the species 
undergo. We know of no particular Rasorial tendencies beyond 
what are indicated by the mere bulkiness of body, by the com- 
pressed and semiyertically carried tail (as in the common fowl, 
as also in the Ostrich), and the habit of strutting with expanded 
wings and tail, as the males of some of the species do in the 
* Communicated by E. Blyth, Esq., Caleutta.— W. J. 
t If the Pressirostres of Cuvier be combined with his Longirostres, and thus made 
to comprise the Charadriade and Scolopacide of English systematists, we have 
then a natural and well defined series, distinct alike from the true Cultrirostres 
or Ardeade, and the restricted Macrodactylé or Rallide, The Gruide, pertain in 
our opinion to the first of these series, and so also do the Palamedeade (compre- 
hending the Jacanas). In each series the egg and chick have a very distinct 
character. 
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