620 AVES— BUSTARD. 



is left the sportsman, is the comfortless view of their distant security. H« 

 may wish, but they are in safety. 



It sometimes happens that these birds, though they are seldom shot by 

 the gun, are run down by greyhounds. As they are voracious and greedy, 

 they often sacrifice their safety to their appetite, and feed themselves so 

 very fat, that they are unable to fly without great preparation. When the 

 greyhound, therefore, comes within a certain distance, the bustard runs off, 

 flapping its wings, and endeavoring to gather air enough under them to 

 rise ; in the mean time the enemy approaches nearer, till it is too late for 

 the bird even to think of obtaining safety by flight; for just at the rise there 

 is always time lost, and of this the bird is sensible ; it continues, therefore, 

 on the foot until it is taken. 



As there are few places where they can at once find proper food and secu- 

 rity, so they generally continue near their old haunts, seldom wandering 

 above twenty or thirty miles from home. As their food is replete with 

 moisture, it enables them to live upon these dry plains, where there are 

 scarcely any springs of water, a long time without drinking. Besides this, 

 nature has given the males an admirable magazine for their security against 

 thirst. This is a pouch, the entrance of which lies immediately under the 

 tongue, and capable of holding near seven quarts of water. This is proba- 

 bly filled upon proper occasions, to supply the hen when sitting, or the 

 voung before they can fly. The bustard also makes use of its reservoir to 

 defend itself against birds of prey ; which it effects by ejecting the water 

 with such violence as often to arrest the progress of its enemy. 



They form no nest, but only scrape a hole in the earth, and sometimes 

 line it with a little long grass or straw. They lay two eggs only, almost of 

 the size of a goose egg, of a pale olive brown, marked with spots of a darker 

 color. They hatch for about thirty days, and the young ones run about as 

 soon as they are out of the shell. 



It is said that when the persecuted mother is apprehensive of the hunters, 

 and is disturbed from her nest, she takes her eggs under her wing, and 

 transports them to a place of safety. The fact is, however, that following 

 the instinct of all other birds of this kind, they generally make their nests in 

 the corn, where they are almost certain of remaining undisturbed. 



The bustard is not known in America. Besides the delicacy of their flesh, 

 the quills are valuable, as they make excellent pens, but they are still more 

 esteemed bv anglers, who use them as floats ; for, as they are spotted with 

 black, tne notion is, that these black spots appear as flies to the fish, which 

 they rather allure than drive away by their appearance. 



