140 INDIAN SPOETING BIRDS 



cannot be picked out by human eyes, but even a falcon flown at 

 one has been seen to settle and walk about in utter bewilder- 

 ment, looking for the prey that had alighted and adopted the 

 plan of literally " lying low." 



Often also the houbara avoids the falcon when dropping into 

 cover, and when hard pressed ejects his excrement, which, as in 

 all bustards, is copious, fluid, and very offensive. He is credited 

 with domg this on purpose, when, on trying to escape by "ringing 

 up " like a heron, he finds the hawk just under him ; whether 

 or not intentional, however, the action effectually puts the 

 assailant out of the running, for the filthy discharge so glues 

 its feathers together that it cannot fly well till cleansed, and 

 may drop on the spot. But the falcon chiefly acts as the 

 houbara's foe under the management of man ; eagles, which 

 strike at birds on the ground rather than on the wing, are 

 probably the enemies against which the sandy plumage is a 

 disguise. 



In thick cover, houbara can be walked up by a line of 

 guns and beaters ; where they are to be found in the open, a 

 good way to approach them is to ride round them in diminishing 

 circles on a camel, being ready for them to get up suddenly 

 after they have disappeared by squatting as the approach 

 becomes closer. You can see them all right when standing, 

 in spite of the supposed "counter-shading" effect of the white 

 under-surface of the bod5^ Houbara are usually in parties, 

 sometimes as many as twenty together ; they feed chiefly on 

 vegetable food, ber fruits, grewia berries, lemon-grass shoots, 

 and young wheat ; now and then beetles and snails are taken, 

 however. They appear to have no sort of call, but the male has 

 a very striking nuptial display ; he turns his tail forward, drops 

 his wings, draws his head back and puffs out his neck till the 

 bristling ruff produces a most extraordinary effect. The hen 

 lays, in the usual bustard fashion, on the ground, two or three 

 eggs, elliptical, about two and a half inches long, and stone- 

 colour to olive-brown in tint, with evenly distributed blotches 

 and spots of dark brown and pale purple ; some specimens 

 have a green ground. This species of bustard finds its 

 western limit in Mesopotamia as a rule, but it straggles west 



