OTIDIDiE. 609 



The Bustard frequents bare open plains, grassy plains interspersed 

 with low bushes, and occasionally high grass rumnahs. In the rainy 

 season large numbers may be seen together stalking over the undu- 

 lating plains of the Deccan or Central India. 1 have seen flocks of 

 twenty-five and more, and a writer in the Sporting Review mentions 

 having seen above thirty on one small hill. This writer states his 

 belief that they are never seen in any district that is not charac- 

 terized by hills as well as plains ; but this, from my own experience 

 I would merely interpret that they do not frequent alluvial plains, 

 but prefer the undulating country; for I have seen them on 

 extensive plains, where there were merely a few ridges or emi- 

 nences, and nothing deserving the name of a hill close at hand. 

 Towards the close of the rains, and in the cold weather before 

 the long grass is cut down, the Bustard will often be found, at all 

 events in the. heat of the day, concealed in the grass, but not for 

 the purpose of eating the seeds of the Roussa grass, as the writer 

 above alluded to imagines, rather for the large grasshoppers that 

 abound so there, and which fly against you at every few steps 

 you take. During the cold weather the Bustard frequently feeds, 

 and rests during the day likewise, in wheat fields. When the 

 grass and corn is all cut, and the bare plains no longer afford food 

 to the Bustard, it will be found along the banks of rivers where 

 there is long grass mixed with bushes, or the edges of large tanks, 

 or low jungle where there is moderately high grass, or it wanders 

 to some district where there is more grass, for though they do not 

 migrate, yet Bustards change their ground much according to the 

 season, and the supply of grasshoppers ' and other insects. The 

 hen birds, remarks the writer quoted above, generally congregate 

 together during the rains, are very timid, and frequently, when a 

 sportsman is pursuing a single one, she will attempt to seek safety, 

 fatally for herself, in some large bush, particularly if the gunner 

 turn aside his head, and affect not to see her at the moment of 

 hiding. The cock-birds, at this season, feed a mile or so apart 

 from the hens, and stretching their magnificent white necks, stride 

 along most pompously. Besides grasshoppers, whicli may be said 

 to be their favorite food, the Bustard will eat any other large 

 insect, more especially Mylahris, or blistering beetle, so 



PART II. 4 H 



