INDIAN HOUBARA BUSTARD.
OTIS MACQUEENI, J. E. Gray.
Otis macqueeni, Gray i ffardwicke, 111. Ind. Zool. ii. pi. 47;
Naum. xiii. Suppl. p. 216; Yarr. ed. 4, iii. p. 221;
Dresser, vii. p. 395.
A bird of this species was shot in October 1847 by
Mr. G. Hunsley in a stubble-field near Kirton-in-Lindsey,
Lincolnshire, and the specimen is still preserved in the
museum of the Philosophical Society at York. A second
bird was shot on 5th October, 1892, near Marske, in
Yorkshire. It proved to be a male and is now in the
museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne. A third example, also
a male, was shot in the parish of Easington, near Spurn
Head, on the 17th October, 1896, and an account of
its capture is given by Mr. John Cordeaux in the
I Zoologist * for 1896 (p. 433).
In Europe several occurrences of this Bustard have
been recorded, concerning some of which the details are
given by Mr. H. Saunders in his * Manual.’ The home
of the species is Central Asia, whence it migrates
southwards, and spends the winter in Northern India,
and is said to be especially abundant in Sind at that
season.
An egg of this species, taken in Mesopotamia in May
1860, and sent to Professor Newton, is figured in the
‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1861
(p. 397, pi. xxxix. fig. 5). [0. S.]
INDIAN HOUBARA BUSTARD.