610 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



abundant diiring the rains ; the large Buprestis, Scarahm, cater- 

 pillars, &c., also lizards, centipedes, small snakes, &c. Mr. Elliot 

 found a Quail's egg entire in the stomach of one, and they will 

 often swallow pebbles or any glittering object that attracts them. 

 I took several portions of a brass ornament, the size of a No. 16 

 bullet, out of the stomach of one Bustard. In default of insect 

 food, it will eat fruit of various kinds, especially the fruit of the 

 Byr (Zizyphus jujuba) and Caronda (^Carissa carandas) ; grain, 

 and other seeds and vegetable shoots. 



The Bustard is polygamous, and at the breeding season, which 

 varies very greatly according to the district, from October to 

 March, the male struts about on some eminence, puffing out the 

 feathers of his neck and throat, e^^anding his tail, and ruffling 

 his wings, uttering now and then a low deep moaning call heard a 

 great way off. The female lays one or two eggs of a dark olive 

 green, faintly blotched with dusky. I have killed the young, half- 

 grown, in March, near Saugor. 



The Bustard has another call heard not unfrequently, compared 

 by some to a bark or a bellow ; chiefly heard, however, when the 

 bird is alarmed. This is compared by the natives to the word 

 liook^ hence the name of hoohna, by which it is known to 

 the villagers about Gwalior. When raised, it generally takes 

 a long flight, sometimes three or four miles, with a steady, con- 

 tinued flapping of its wings, at no great height above the ground, 

 and I never found that it had any difficulty in rising, not even 

 requiring to run one step, as I have many times had occasion to 

 observe when flushing them in long grass or wheat fields. On 

 the open bare plains, it will sometimes run a step or two before 

 mounting into the air. A writer in the Bengal Sporting Magazine 

 asserts that he has known the Bustard ridden down, and that 

 after two or three fli2i:hts it is so exhausted as to allow of its 

 capture. I imagine that a healthy bird would tire out the best 

 horse and rider before giving in. 



At times a single Cock-bustard can be very easily stalked so as 

 to get within distance of a fair shot, 50 or 60 yards, or even nearer, 

 by rapidly moving obliquely towards them, as mentioned previously 

 when speaking of Sand-grouse ; when several are together they 



