Bustard extends—the border-line to the westward being the British Islands; to the southward the plains of
Northern Africa, Arabia, and P e rsia ; to the eastward, across Mongolia, where it was met with by Mr.
Atkinson, as far as China and the river Amoor; and to the northward, Sweden and Russia. The other
known species of Bustard are also confined to the Old World, particularly to Africa and Asia, with the exception
o f the single species found in Australia.
The following notes respecting the Bustard were communicated to the late Mr. Yarrell by C. A. Nicholson,
Esq., of Balrath Kells, in the county of Meath, and were published by him in the twenty-first volume of the
‘Transactions o f the Linnean Society’:—
“ You will perhaps be interested by a few remarks on the habits of the Great Bustard as observed by me in the
neighbourhood of Seville, where it exists in large numbers. The males begin to arrive in the cultivated part of
the country at the beginning of February; they come in flocks, varying from seven to fifty-three, the smallest and
largest numbers I have seen together at that season of the year. The old birds always keep together; and those
of a year old, which are much smaller and have no beard, never mix with them. The females, which do not
arrive until the beginning of April, come singly or at most in pairs; as soon as they arrive, the flocks of males begin
to disperse, and you seldom meet more than three or four males together, and very frequently only one. At
this time, on a fine day, they turn their tails over their backs, droop their wings, and expand their pouches.
While in this attitude, from the whiteness of the under tail-coverts, they may be seen at a great distance.
As I have never seen a female near a cock, the sexes appear to live quite separate. During the month of May the
males entirely disappear from the cultivated lands, and, I believe, go down to the extensive grass-marshes which
stretch along the Guadalquiver, leaving the females behind them. The young Bustards are hatched in the large
corn-plains about Seville, and are able to take care of themselves by July. At the end of that month, when, the
corn being all cut, no cover remains, the hens and the young birds follow the cocks to the marisma, as they call the
great marshes in Spain. The heaviest bird I shot weighed 28 lbs.; this was before the hens came, which may
perhaps account for its being two pounds heavier than any I shot afterwards. I t measured, from tip to tip of the
wings, 7 feet 1 inch; while another, which weighed 26 lbs., measured 7 feet 3 inches. The birds of a year old
weigh from 8 to 10 lbs., and are much the best to eat. All the birds I shot had their stomachs perfectly crammed
with stalks and ears of barley, the leaves of a large-leaved green weed, and a kind of black beetle. When flushed
the birds generally fly a distance of two miles or more, and occasionally at an altitude of at least a hundred yards.”
Captain Blakiston, of the Royal Artillery, informs me that, while in the Crimea, during the late war,
“ The Great Bustard was first observed on the 19th of December, 1855, and continued flying over in great
numbers for three days. The country at the time was covered with snow. Many were killed with bullets while
flying, and after they had alighted on the hills. They did not fly in flocks, but somewhat widely dispersed, and
generally at a considerable altitude; they appeared to come from the north, and to proceed south-east—perhaps to
the coast of Asia Minor, where they would find a comparatively warm temperature. A break of the weather soon
after occurred, and then only a few were occasionally seen. I noticed a small number proceeding north in A pril;
but as their appearance was not remarked upon, there could not have been numbers together. I t is most likely
that the bird breeds in the steppes of the Crimea, as some were seen near the Alma in May 1856; but to account
for the enormous numbers which migrated in the winter, we must suppose that the greater part are driven by stress
of weather from the mainland of Southern Russia, and that, if some remain on the south coast during the cold
season, most of them must cross the Black Sea to Asia Minor.”
I do not usually enter into--.anatomical details, but a passing word is necessary respecting the supposed
existence o f a pouch or sac in the throat o f the Bustard. On this subject many pages o f considerable interest
have been written by the late Mr. Yarrell in the ‘ Transactions o f the Linnean Society,’ by Professor
Owen, and more recently by M r. Alfred Newton in ‘ The Ibis ’ for 1862. That there is no true sac or pouch
in the throat o f the Great Bustard, capable of holding water, there can be, I think, no doubt. The enormous
distention o f the neck in the old males, which occurs during the pairing-season, is doubtless due to
sexual excitement, and, in my opinion, is precisely analogous to what occurs a t the same period in the
American Prairie-hen ( Cupidonia ctipido), the G reat Cock of the Plains ( Centrocercus urophasianus), and many
other birds. At this period the entire neck o f the Bustard becomes highly vascular, and the vast network
of air-cells with which it is provided inflated to an enormous extent. The attitudes and contortions assumed
by the bird are very strange during these paroxysms o f pleasure, or when he becomes maddened with rage,
should another male dispute with him for the affections o f the female. The accompanying illustration by
Mr. Wolf gives a good idea of the bird in this state of excitement, which might have been daily seen, a
short while ago, in the Gardens o f the Zoological Society.
The difference in the sexes is very marked, the female being about half the size o f her mate, and wanting,
except in some very old birds, the lengthened hair-like appendages which adorn the cheeks.
The Bustard is omnivorous, its food consisting o f the tops o f vegetables, trefoil, grasses, worms, insects,
snails, frogs and other reptiles, mice, and, it is said, young birds. The eggs, which are deposited in a
depression on the bare ground, are two in number, o f a sandy olive, stained and blotched with purple and
reddish brown.
The Plate represents a female and two young birds nearly the size o f life, with reduced figures o f the male
in the distance.