. A history of British birds . Demoiselle Crane is a bird which has a wide rangethrough Africa, Asia, and Southern Europe, and it has beenrecorded as having occurred during the last half century :once in Silesia, twice in Sweden, and once in Heligoland :it is also a species frequently kept in confinement, and thereis a possibility that the individual in question may haveescaped. The late Mr. Gould has not included it in his Birds of Great Britain ; and it has been placed inbrackets by the Committee of the British OrnithologistsUnion, entrusted with the compilation of the List ofBritish Birds.
. A history of British birds . Demoiselle Crane is a bird which has a wide rangethrough Africa, Asia, and Southern Europe, and it has beenrecorded as having occurred during the last half century :once in Silesia, twice in Sweden, and once in Heligoland :it is also a species frequently kept in confinement, and thereis a possibility that the individual in question may haveescaped. The late Mr. Gould has not included it in his Birds of Great Britain ; and it has been placed inbrackets by the Committee of the British OrnithologistsUnion, entrusted with the compilation of the List ofBritish Birds. A specimen of the Balearic Crane {Balearica pavonina)was recorded by Mr. R. Gray (Ibis, 1872, p. 201), whoexamined the specimen, as having been shot near Dairy, inAyrshire, on the 17th September, 1871. This, again, is abird often kept in confinement, and which even as a strag-gler has seldom, if indeed ever, visited the northern shoresof the Mediterranean ; its home being Northern and WesternAfrica. GREAT BUSTARD A ^^^i^ > Otis taeda, Linnaeus.* THE GREAT BUSTARD. Otis tarda. Otis, Linnceus-f.—Bill moderate, straight, depressed at the base, the point ofthe upper mandible curved. Nostrils a little removed from the base, lateral,oval, and open. Legs long, naked above the tarsal joint. Toes three, all directedforward, short, united at the base, and edged with membrane. Wings of moder-ate length, in form rather rounded ; the third quill-feather the longest. Those who are desirous of ascertaining Avhat was knownof the Great Bustard in more ancient times, may consultthe works of Mlian, Albertus Magnus, Aldrovandus, * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 264 (176^VOL. III. f loc. cit. C C 194 OTimBM. Aristotle, Athenasus, Belon, Oppian, Pliny,* and Plutarch ;but for the purposes of the present work it will suffice toconsider more recent authorities, especially those who treatof the former existence of this magnificent bird in our ownislands. In the melancholy task of tracing the
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