142 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



many are shot or killed with hawks ; what is most noticed seems 

 to be the eccentric flight, which renders it impossible to drive 

 the birds. In Europe they have been found to " ring up " and 

 put in about half-an-hour at aerial gymnastics till beaters had 

 gone on, when they resumed their ground and everyday life. 



It may be mentioned that the peculiarity of two distinct 

 styles of flight is observable in a very different bird, the beautiful 

 rosy cockatoo or " galah " of Australia [Cacatua roseicapilla) ; 

 this bird, as I was able to observe in specimens they have had 

 loose at the London Zoo on two occasions during the past two 

 years (1912-1913), goes off as heavily as a duck, but when well 

 in the air swings along with the slow, rocking, happy-go-lucky 

 flight of a gull, the very antipodes of the swift flight of the 

 familiar Indian parrakeets. 



To return to the butterfly houbara, it frequents low grass and 

 oil-seed crops, and feeds largely on the leaves of the sarson 

 mustard, also eating insects and snails ; in mustard fields it 

 often lies very close, and is easily walked up and killed. In 

 rising it makes a sharp "pat-pat"' with the wings. Its call, 

 " a loud guttural rattling cry," is frequently uttered on the wing ; 

 during the breeding season the male calls tree tree, and shows off 

 with head drawn back, tail expanded, and half-opened wings ; 

 but he is monogamous, and does not yearn after a harem like 

 so many bustards. 



The breeding range of the species covers the countries of the 

 Mediterranean basin, and extends eastwards to Central Asia ; 

 northwards it ranges to East Prussia and South Russia, where it 

 is one of the characteristic steppe birds, living concealed in the 

 rank vegetation of the region during the summer. In the lush 

 herbage the birds frequent the eggs are very hard to find ; the 

 clutch, often in a fairly well-made nest, is large for a bustard, 

 four being laid, which no doubt partly accounts for this species 

 being so common in many localities ; but there may be five, 

 three, or two. The eggs are short pointed ovals, olive in ground 

 with a brown or green tinge, and markings of light brown which 

 are often so faint as to be with difficulty distinguishable. 



Hume did not think well of the flesh of this bird, which he 

 describes as dark and hard, and rather unpleasantly flavoured ; 



