HOUBAKA 139 



Houbara. 



Houbara macqueenii. Tilur, Punjabi. 



The houbara is the characteristic bustard of the semi-desert 

 tracts of North-west India ; it is of medium size for a bustard, 

 about two and a half feet long, and has plumage so beautifully 

 assimilated to the sandy soil that it is hard to see at all on the 

 ground, at any rate when crouched flat, which it habitually does 

 when alarmed. On the wing its black-and-white quills show 

 it up conspicuously, and in the hand its long fringe-like black- 

 and-white ruff and the delicate grey on the breast, and the bars 

 of the same tint on the tail, make it conspicuously different from 

 our other bustards. The hen only differs from the cock in being 

 smaller and not quite so fully " furnished " in the matter of head 

 and neck plumage, but the sex difference is only comparative, 

 not absolute as in our other bustards. Cocks weigh about four 

 and hens about three pounds. 



This bustard does not breed within Indian limits as far as 

 is known, though it is suspected of doing so in Sind ; but it is 

 a well-known winter visitor, sometimes arriving as early as the 

 end of August, but usually at least a month later. After April 

 the birds have generally all departed for their breeding haunts — 

 Persia and the Gulf, Baluchistan and Afghanistan. Outside 

 Sind, Eajputana and the Punjab, houbara are mere stragglers; 

 Hume shot one such in the Meerut district. 



In the AVestern Indian dry plain country the houbara may 

 be found either in the more or less thick but low and scrubby 

 natural cover, or among the cereal crops, so long as these are 

 low. It runs well, and often tries to escape in this way, but 

 towards the time of its departure it appears to feel the heat so 

 much as to be disinclined even to run, let alone fly. When it 

 does rise, its flight is heavy and not long-continued, but it can 

 display considerable wing power when attacked by a hawk. 

 Ridiculously exaggerated as are many of the accounts of " pro- 

 tective colouring," there are some cases in which it really does 

 seem to be a very important asset to the creature possessing 

 it ; for not only is it generally agreed that a squatting houbara 



