TETRAX CAMPESTRIS. 
151 
The adult males never lose the minutely marked or vermicu- 
lated plumage on the back, which part in the females and 
young males is more spotted or blotched, like the feathers of 
the Great Bustard . I found the Little Bustard equally common 
in Morocco as in Andalucia on all open low cultivated ground. 
On the dead level, or vega, of the Barbate near Casa Vieja at 
times, in early autumn, they positively swarm, in flocks some- 
times of as many or more than a hundred together, frequent- 
ing this flat ground till it is swamped by the rains. They 
then resort to drier and. higher ground, and these large flocks 
gradually disperse and break up into lots of from five or six 
to twenty in number. They are, as Favier remarks, exceed- 
ingly wary, except during the breeding-season and in the 
month of August. At other times the only way to obtain 
them is by driving, which is very uncertain work, as, unlike 
the Great Bustard, they usually rise high up at once, and 
their power and rapidity of flight is astonishing for their size 
and weight. 
They are often to be seen flying somewhat like Golden 
Plover, twirling and twisting about at a great elevation ; and 
sometimes I have watched them rise and go to such a height 
that it would have been difiicult to tell what birds they were 
unless I had seen them fly up from the ground. 
During August, when it is very hot, between eleven and 
four, they lie '' like stones " in the long grass, requiring a dog 
to flush them ; but the heat is then so excessive that one is 
almost as likely to get a sunstroke as a Little Bustard, and I 
myself could never stand such work. 
The nearest place to Gibraltar that these birds are seen in 
is on the plain between Los Barrios and Palmones, where 
occasionally in autumn and winter a few appear ; but they are 
too much bullied by Gibraltar sportsmen to remain there long. 
The Moorish names given above are all signiflcant of the 
rattling noise which the Little Bustard makes in rising ; and 
when the flock is large this can be heard a very long way off^. 
There is none of this sound of the wings in the rising of the 
slow-flying Great Bustard. 
When on the wing, the Little Bustard, except when at a 
