I 



Flowery PUdns and Bustards. 47 



of pasturage, with great patches of white and yellow 

 flowers blazing and dazzling in the brilliant sun. Just as 

 we were nearing a vast stretch of corn, one of our men 

 stopped his horse, and shading his keen eyes from the 

 glare, exclaimed, ahutarda — bustard. He pointed, and we 

 stared, bat it was some time before we could make out a 

 group of bustards. When we had once made them out, 

 they appeared so big and brown in the grass, that we 

 wondered why we had not seen them before. A careful 

 scrutiny through the binoculars revealed a band of eight — 

 some squatting and only visible when they raised their 

 heads, some standing sleepily, and some pecking at the 

 ground here and there in a desultory fashion. We watched 

 the birds some time, and then, after a careful study of the 

 surrounding land and a brief council of war, we all turned off 

 to the right. The bustard pays little attention to a man on 

 horseback, and will often allow him to approach within two 

 or three hundred yards, but a man on foot is no sooner seen 

 than avoided. We accordingly kept well hidden behind the 

 horses until we had put Eome high corn between us and 

 the birds. Here our men left us, and while we lay hidden 

 behind the corn, some hundred yards apart, they galloped 

 round in a wide circuit with the object of getting behind 

 the bustards and driving them over us. Crouched behind 

 the corn we waited, but waited in vain, no bustards 

 appeared. A.t last one of the men rode up saying that 

 the birds had made off to our right before they could get 

 round them. Luckily they did not fly far, and we soon 

 found them again. The same tactics were resorted to, 

 but were again a failure, and worse still the birds flew so 

 far that we failed to mark them down. Indeed it is no 

 easy matter to drive such wary birds and powerful flyers 

 to a definite point on an immense plain. 



