144 The Great Bustard 
It is hardly necessary to say that the unhappy chick on the 
floor quickly succumbed to the maltreatment it had received ; 
the second one, despite several injuries from prods with the stick, 
survived for four days. It was a weird-looking little creature, 
an atom of down with a big head and long legs, and had a 
most plaintive and resonant call, out of all proportion to its diminu- 
tive body. During its brief existence it fed well and ran about 
at extraordinary speed around the barrack-room, taking cover 
amid the rows of boots arranged along the wall. 
The weight of a Bustard is a subject of which very varied 
accounts have been written. Apparently the unfortunate stragglers 
Ss 
which have from time to time visited England and been promptly 
slain must have been very young birds. Yarrell records males 
of only 16 lb. and females of 9 lb. to 10 |lb., whereas the males in 
Spain commonly weigh between 20 Ib. and 30 Ib. and the females 
12 lb. to 18 lb. Professor Newton mentions 22 lb. to 32 Ib. 
as the average weight of European Bustards. The remarkable 
variations of weight in birds shot out of the same flocks and in 
the same localities lead me to believe that Bustards take very 
much longer to reach maturity than is popularly imagined. Again, 
they seem to vary enormously in weight according to the season 
of the year. Out of a number of Bustards | have weighed and 
examined, those killed in the winter months have averaged only 
about two-thirds the weight of birds killed in March and April. 
The smallest Great Bustard I ever saw killed was a young female 
in the month of February, and which weighed only 12 lb. This 
bird must have been at least 9 months old. 
Of course not many Great Bustards are shot by Englishmen 
in April, and then only, as a rule, birds required for skinning, 
for at this time they are in their most splendid plumage. The 
old males at this time have their necks enormously distended 
whilst the coloration of the feathers on either side of it is of 
