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Show 488 SIR W. ELLIOT ON THE INDIAN BUSTARD. [June 15, pint bottle ; it held the contents of seven with ease. I thought time this organ might be intended to enable the bird to carry a supply of water in the hot season when every thing is dried up; but considering the solitary habits of the bird, and that the male alone is furnished with such an appendage, I incline td Dr. Murie's opinion that it is an organ of sound to attract the females in the breeding-season. The following were the measurements of an average-sized male bird weighing 25 lbs.:- inches. Length from point of beak to end of tail 48 Height, standing 41 Length of leg 22 „ tarsus • • 8| Expansion of wings 7 ft. 7 As maybe supposed, so remarkable a bird, so widely distributed, many native names. It is the "tokdar" of the Mahomedan falconers ; " tuyhderi" in Turkish; " yere-ladd u " of the Canarese ; "batt a 7nekha" of the Yanadis or nomade bird-catchers; " gunad" of the Pardis or northern bird-catchers. In Rajputana, Gwalior, and Bundelkund it goes by the name of " hukna," from its note on being frightened, which the villagers compare to the sound "huh, huk." In Sagar they are called " bherar." A well-known contributor to the 'Bengal Sporting Magazine,' under the nom de plume of " Gunga" (Dr. Brown), says that " during the breeding-season the ccck calls like a lion - a kind of booming growl, whence its native local name of gooraeen " (gurayin)1. In other parts, he adds, "it is called gugunbher2 and sohun." P.S.-Since the foregoing was read, I have read Prof. Newton's paper in the ' Ibis' (vol. iv. p. 107, 1862), in which, with reference to some disparaging remarks of a continental writer on the statements of certain English naturalists, he gives an exhaustive summary of all that has been recorded on the subject of this peculiar structure of the Bustard. From this it appears that its true nature is still involved in doubt. The occurrence of a gular pouch in the male of Otis tarda was first discovered, but not published, by Dr. James Douglas, F.R.C.P., before 1740. It is fully described by Edwards (Nat. Hist. B. ii. tab. 73) ; and this view seems to have been accepted till 1848, when Prof. Owen, in making a preparation of the head and neck of a male bird for the Mus. Coll. of Surgeons, stated that there was " no trace of a gular pouch." In 1853 Mr. Yarrell contributed a paper to the Linn. Trans, (vol. xxi. p. 159), in which he comes to the same conclusion. He was followed by Mr. Newton himself, whose examination failed to detect the existence of a separate distinct pouch with an external opening from above, and left it in doubt whether any 1 Probably from the Hindustani " gurgurcira," to thunder, to roll, to roar like a tiger. 2 From "gugan," the sky, and " bherna," to hide = sky-bider. |