Cliff, Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, on the 7 th of October,
1847 (Zool. pp. 1969, 2065, 2146). This is the only
specimen obtained in Great Britain down to the present
time.
On the Continent the visits of this Asiatic bird have
been more frequent, although there is difficulty .in identifying
some of the earlier occurrences, owing to this species
having been formerly confused with the closely allied African
representative 0._ undulata. Modern research, wherever
practicable, renders it, however, tolerably certain that>-the
fivq;‘‘ Houbara Bustards ” recorded as having occurred in
Northern Germany between the years 1800 and 1847, were
all, or nearly all, examples of 0. macqueeni. g In Belgium
three genuine examples of this spéciés have been obtained :
viz., one in September, 1842 ; one near Louvain, in December,
1844; and one "'near Brussels, on the 13th December,
1845. In February, 1847, one was hilled o>n the Swedish
island of Oeland; on the 12th November, 1857, an adult
female was shot, ojit of a flock of,six individuals, near Flensburg,
in Schleswig; in, December, 1860, one was captured
alive in the district of Ilza, in Boland ; on September 19th,'
1861, one was obtained near Helsingfors, in Finland) and
recently/ o'ne was shot in the latter part off September, 1880,
in Livonia (Zook Garten, 1881, p. 156): In Itadyf where the
African form might rather have been expected-to occur, two
females of Abe Asiatic species were obtained near - Rome,d!§.
November and Decerhber, 1859, and are, respectively, in' the
Museum at Florence and that of the_r University of Rome.
These examples were referred fh O: Undulata by Dr. Salva-
dori, who had ,ngt jeen them, but Professor Giglioli identifies
them with the Asiatic bird ; and, apparently, the rare occurrences
of the African.Ruffed Bustard in Europe are limited
to Malta and Southern Spain.
Captain Huttoii states that MacqueenVBustafdhs common,
and remains all the year bn the stony plains1 bf Afghanistan,'
where ib is sometimes, sèen3in small packs' of five or six
together. R flies heavily;* and for shórt distances,1 soon
alighting and running» Severtzow obtained it on migration
on 17th September in the Pamir range, and it appears to be
resident between the Caspian and Yarkand, ranging as far as
the Altai range to the north-east, and perhaps to Mongolia*
as both Prjevalski and the Abbé David observed a small
species of Bustard, which they were unable, to* procure.
Throughout Persia it/is common down to the Gulf, on some
0f the islands ,of which it is supposed to have bred ; and the
highlands of Baluchistan are also believed to. be 4ts breed?
ing-grounds. In the cold season it straggles as far as the
Jumna, but' it.-is only to be found in any numbers in the
sandy, semi-desert country of Bind, especially in the Sirsa
and Kurachee districts,, in the latter -of which about/fifty
have been known to fall to one gun in a single- day-. It appears
in'September, and leaves again in/ March--or April.*,
To the? west of Persia it becomes difficult to trace the range
of this species, for De Filippi, who brought home no skins,
affirms that it is the African form which occurs in Armenia,
nor did Canon Tristram bring back specimens of- the Ruffbd
Bustard which he,- observed in Palestinef
Mr. Hump states. that he has never remarked . any preponderance
of females over males-. " Maequéen’s Bustard
frequents the fields.which yi^ld’the oil-seeds of commerce;
and feeds, largely' on the'small fruits of the Bur, the berries
of; the üvema, -and the yeung shoots of the lemon-grass :
occasionally picking up a grasshopper or a beetle. The
sp echo en killed in Lincolnshire had its craw filled, w th
caterpillars, of the ^ommon Yelled Underwing Moth, small
shelled snails, beetles, &c.
Aw-,egg of this species obtained- by the collector of Hçri»
Tanoré, in the, Altai range—-presumably' op tbe elevated
plains—is in the collection of-.; Mr^H. Seebobm, and is
figured in his. ‘ History of British; Birds, with Coloured
Rlustratipn¥ of their Eggs,’ Pt.; II. pi." 21. It is of a
somewhat olivaGeous-brownù-cQlonr, with darker blotches,
and measures 2*6 by.1‘85 in.
The male has the forehead, sides of the head,.-upper pai-t. of
the back of the neck; pale huff, pencilled with hlaek ; crest
* Hume and Marshall, ‘GameBirds of . I n d i a , Ifü-'Ul.