584. BRITISH BIRDS. 
feet high, and weighing from 15 to 30 Ib., is necessarily a very conspi- 
cuous object; consequently the Bustard chooses a locality where there is 
little or nothing to intercept the view. It is very suspicious of danger, 
and does not willingly place itself in a position where an enemy cannot be 
discerned a long way off. My first introduction to the Great Bustard was 
on the Wallachian steppes south of Bukharest. A day’s sail down the 
Danube from Giurgivo will, if you choose the northern arm of that river, 
bring you to the little town of Kalarash. On the 28th of May last year, 
Mr. John Young and I started in two waggons from that town, accom- 
panied by a German chasseur who “ knew the ropes,” and to. whom we were 
indebted to the kindness of Mr. Green, of Bukharest. We were tired of 
blowing Heron’s and Egret’s eggs, and gladly hailed the chance of a raid 
amongst the Bustards. North of Kalarash the steppe extends with slight 
undulations as far as the eye can reach. Most of the land is cultivated 
with wheat, Indian corn, and other crops near the town, but after we had 
driven about eight miles we found herds of cattle feeding on the grass, 
horses, oxen, and buffaloes. The steppes abounded with birds. Flocks of 
Stock-Doves and Turtle-Doves from Bulgaria, and pairs of Sky-Larks, 
Calandra Larks, and Corn-Buntings were the commonest birds, and Quails 
were continually heard. Now and then a Steppe-EHagle or a Black Kite 
passed over; and once we saw a flock of eighteen Griffon Vultures sailing 
round and round. We spent an hour in the corn, hoping to put upa 
Bustard ; but it yielded nothing but Quail and Montagu’s Harriers, so 
we made for the open steppe. Although the Bustard is so wary, he often 
permits of the near approach of a waggon if the driver is concealed ; and 
we soon had the pleasure of seeing a female Great Bustard rise from the 
grass, and after a slight struggle take wing and fly slowly away.- We ran 
to the spot whence she rose, and were delighted to find two eggs ona 
piece of bare earth trodden down into the semblance of a hollow. There 
was no nest and scarcely any cover ; the grass was thin, and only here and 
there were weeds high enough to shield the sitting bird from view in certain 
directions. Whilst we were feasting our eyes on the eggs, she came round 
again, but after one turn flew right away, with slow heavy flap of wing not 
unlike a Heron. Soon afterwards we descried eight male birds on a slight 
incline nearly a mile away. At first we mistook them for sheep, but our 
binoculars soon convinced us that they were Great Bustards. In the 
course of the day we saw several parties of two or four birds, and once a 
flock of eighteen, probably last year’s birds not yet breeding. The female 
is very silent, but the male occasionally utters a note like the syllable pruné, 
and when alarmed both sexes make a sort of hiss. 
The breeding of the Great Bustard may, however, be seen much nearer 
home than the valley of the Danube. On the 23rd of May, 1882, I took 
the nest of a Great Bustard in North Germany. The Brocken is the highest 
