Methods of Approaching Them 151 
Single birds, and more rarely pairs, are sometimes more 
approachable, and if disturbed where there is cover will often only 
fly a few hundred yards and pitch again. When this happens | 
have killed them by walking quickly towards the spot, allowing 
20 yards or so for their habit of running after alighting and the 
instant they rise firing at them with heavy shot, No. 3 for choice. 
By this means, they can at times be cut down at long distances 
and they are well worth the trouble and chances of failure. 
Unlike the Great Bustard, they are greatly addicted to running 
and it is a common experience of those who attempt to drive them 
to see them suddenly take wing several hundreds of yards from the 
place where they had been marked down. Once, when posted for 
a drive and with all my energies concentrated on the spot to my 
front, whence I momentarily expected a flock of some fifty to rise, 
I had the mortifying experience of hearing them rise close behind 
me, after having run with great swiftness under cover of the 
asphodel between me and the next gun. Small wonder is it, then, 
that with such perplexing habits very few are ever shot. 
Young birds and females have the head, neck, back and wing- 
coverts of rich shades of brown, spotted and marked with dark 
browns and black, somewhat resembling Great Bustards. The 
adult male’s plumage is of a more delicate shade of brown, closely 
pencilled or vermiculated with the same tints, this plumage he 
retains in winter. 
Now and again, during the winter months, when lying concealed 
waiting for duck or geese, I have had a flock of Little Bustards, 
in their usual dense formation, swirl past me within a few yards. 
So sudden has been their appearance and rapid their flight that 
I have never yet been able to do full justice to such an opportunity. 
Again, during the hottest time of the summer, single birds will at 
times lie close; I have also killed them at such a season late in 
the afternoon when they flight into the marshes to drink. 
