Paroxysms of Courtship 137 
to its peculiar colouring which makes it so hard to see at a distance 
when at rest and so conspicuous when on the wing, when it sets 
about its antics in one instant completely metamorphoses its 
appearance. For, when one of these ‘‘ paroxysms of courtship” 
comes upon it, the head and neck are thrown back and the tail 
turned forward, whilst the wings are trailed and inverted and 
every feather of the axillaries stands on end. The effect is in- 
stantly to convert a hitherto brownish bird into a mass of snowy 
white, double its natural size. Often when riding across the 
plains have I suddenly detected the presence of a big éanxda of 
these fine birds which had hitherto escaped my eye, owing to 
one of them commencing its grotesque manceuvres and presenting 
a large spot of white in the distance where before nothing was 
visible. Another and yet another cock quickly respond to the 
challenge until a whole party of males are engaged in these 
absurd antics. Those who fail to follow my very inadequate 
description are recommended to look at the case of Great Bustards 
at South Kensington, where one is admirably set up in_ this 
extraordinary attitude. 
One of the most perplexing traits in the Bustard’s character 
is that he by no means confines the period of these antics to the 
season of courtship. Long after the females have settled down to 
their eggs in the far distant corn-lands the males, congregated in 
big flocks, will continue to indulge in their frenzied movements, 
which, so far as I have ever been able to see, are purely games of 
“bluff” and “swagger,” which never lead to more than a momen- 
tary encounter—a sort of collision and “fend off” with another 
bird, after which both turn about and continue their absurd move- 
ments independently. When one watches such an encounter, one 
can almost imagine one inverted old cock saying to another: 
“You be off!” “I won't,” replies Number Two, ‘ What! you 
wont?” thunders Number One, rustling up to him with creaking 
