the lesser bustards. 
119 
times a fine-looking bird, becomes an extraordinary object 
when in love, and betrays one of the most remarkable 
fi-Tures to be met with in nature. His “show-off is some- 
what as follows : Standing before the female,_ he beats his 
feet on the ground, and begins by shaking his wings. He 
then turns his tail flat upon his back, crosses his long primary- 
quills, so that the ends protrude cross-wise over it, shakes 
up his scapulars and covers the quills so that nothing ot 
them remains in sight. The white under tail-coverts are ticn 
brought up, so as to form a frill behind him. 1 hen his 
wing-coverts are gradually turned forwards, and the four while 
inner secondaries are erected on each side of the back while 
he buries his head in his neck, thereby causing his whiskers to 
stand erect on each side ; and then by means of the air-pouch 
under his tongue, he inflates his neck and throat to a pro- 
digious extent, his chestnut crop being in full evidence. The 
long parapteral feathers, which are really wing-coverts, share 
in the everting process of the latter, and are thrown forward, 
so as to show the elegant white plumes raised over each side 
of the back That white is evidently a considerable attraction 
to the female, is shown by the fact that the bird constantly 
varies the display by springing suddenly round and exhibiting 
his other side to the female, where there are the white under 
tail-coverts for her to admire. In the Natural History Museum 
is an admirably mounted group of Bustards, executed by Mr. 
Pickhardt, and showing the results of his studies of the species 
in the Zoological Gardens, where this year (1895) the female 
Bustard laid eggs. 
Nest.— None t a mere hollow scraped in the ground. 
Eggs. Two or three in number. Generally olive-brown, 
double spotted, the underlying spots and blotches being faint 
purplish-grey, with similar overlying markings of light olive or 
brown. Axis, a'y-s’as inches ; diam., a-i-a'SS. 
the lesser bustards, genus tetrax. 
Tetrax, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. &c. Brit. Mus. p. 28 (1816). 
Type, T, tetrax (Linn.). 
In this genus, which consists of one small species, there are 
