Bustards. 411 



straight, though not very slow. The 

 beats of the wing are so rapid that they 

 make quite a loud whirring sound, and 

 they show more white when flying than 

 the Great Bustard does. In many 

 respects their flight resembles that of 

 a butterfly or of a Snow-Bunting. We 

 never saw two males together during the 

 breeding season. The nest can only be 

 found by accident. We were driving 

 rather quickly across the steppe, anxious 

 to reach Kalarath before dark, when 

 suddenly a female Little Bustard rose 

 within ten feet of the waggon and was 

 speedily dropped by our Jager, who was 

 sitting gun in hand by the driver. We 

 jumped out of the carriage, and in a 

 quarter of a minute found the nest, con- 

 taining four eggs. The hollow was 

 deeper than that of the nest of the Great 

 Bustard, and there was a distinct nest of 

 dry grass and weeds, though very slight ; 

 it was about seven inches across and well 

 concealed by tufts of a kind of lucerne." 



In the British Museum there is a fine 

 series of the eggs of this Bustard from 

 Algeria, Tangiers, France, the Danube 

 steppes, Turkey and South Russia, in- 

 cluding the four eggs found by Mr. 

 Secbohm as above narrated. They are 



