XON-L\DIGEi\OUS BRITISH BIRDS. 217 



the ground, often in a bare situation on the open steppe, 

 or in a field of young corn. It is merely a hollow 

 trampled out by the female, about eighteen inches 

 across, but not more than one or two inches deep, and 

 lined with a few scraps of dry herbage. The bird is 

 a close sitter, but a wary one, and runs from the nest 

 as soon as danger threatens, taking wing a short distance 

 away, and generally resorting to some remote spot, 

 Avithout demonstration of any kind. 



Ran(;e of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Great Bustard are two or three in 

 number, usually the former. They are coarse in texture, 

 the surface full of minute pores, and vary from olive- 

 green to olive-brown and pale buff in ground colour, 

 spotted and blotched with reddish-brown, and with 

 underlying markings of pale lilac-gray. The markings 

 are seldom very bold or decided, and for the most part 

 distributed here and there over the entire surface of the 

 egg. On some specimens a few blackish-brown streaks 

 occur. Average measurement, 3'o inches in length, by 

 2*2 inches in breadth. Incubation, performed by the 

 female, lasts from three weeks to a month. 



Diagnostic characters : The colour or size of 

 these eggs readily distinguish them from those of allied 

 species. 



