U4 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



sight. The courting male turns his tail right over on his hack 

 and holds it down, as it were, with the crossed tips of his long 

 quills, while the pinion joints of the wing extend outwards and 

 downwards; at the same time the head is thrown back, the neck 

 blown out like a bladder and the whiskers extended on each side. 

 The white feathers on the under-side of the rump and on the 

 wings are fully erected and turned forward, and altogether the 

 bird looks about as unbird-like an object as can be imagined. A 

 specimen well stuffed in this position can be seen in the Natural 

 History Museum, at South Kensington. 



The male birds not only show off, but fight furiously for the 



females. They for their part conceal their eggs with great care. 



These are generally two, sometimes three, in number, laid in a 



mere " scrape " or the scantiest of nests ; they are about 



three inches long and olive in hue, tinged w^ith brown or green, 



variegated with dark brown blotches and spots. The down of 



the chicks has black spots on a hght buff ground. This, the 



noblest of all bustards, perhaps of all game birds, is also the 



most widely distributed of the bustard family, ranging all over 



Central and Southern Europe where conditions are suitable, i.e., 



in open unenclosed country, cultivated or waste, and east through 



Asia Minor and Central Asia, to our frontier, while the so-called 



Dybowski's bustard {Otis dyhoivskii), whose range is from Central 



Asia to China, is merely a local race, not a fully distinct species. 



As most people know, it was formerly a well-known though local 



British bird, but was idiotically allowed to be exterminated ; the 



last flock seen, curiously enough, appeared in the same year as 



the first Indian specimen. This bustard, in spite of the slow 



strokes of its wings, flies fast ; it is a migrant where winter 



rigour compels it to wander for food. As human diet it is not 



so nmch favoured as it used to be, but its strong smell does not 



always imply that its meat will be bad eating. 



