150 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



paces — no attempt at a run — and, opening their white wings, flap 

 away in what appears to be a most leisurely manner. Save when 

 there is a strong wind, or when coming off higher ground, they rarely 

 fly more than 30 yards above the ground, and hence when they take 

 the right direction afford good driving shots. Nothing, however, is 

 more deceptive than the pace they fly at, for owing to the steady 

 beats of their immense pinions, some 8 feet across, they seem to the 

 eye to be moving slowly ; but they are not. 



"To appreciate the extraordinary speed they travel at it is 

 necessary to have a bird pass close over one. More than once when 

 lying absolutely prone on my face amid a few dead thistles ... a 

 Great Bustard has passed only a few yards above my lair, at times 

 coming from behind or from some unexpected quarter whilst all one's 

 energies were concentrated in the direction whence the driven birds 

 were expected. On such occasions before one can alter one's position 

 and rise to shoot, it has passed out of shot ! " 



Messrs. Chapman and Buck's description agrees well with that of 

 Colonel Verner : — 



" Two quick steps and a spring and the broad wings of every bird 

 in the pack flap in slowly rising motion. 



Later on in the book p. 252 they add : 



" Tardy strokes deceive the eye, and the great bulk of the 

 Bustard accentuates the deception — it seems impossible to miss 

 them, a fatal error. 



" Yet geese with their 40 strokes fly past ducks at 120, and the 

 Bustard's apparently leisured movement carries him in full career as 

 fast as whirring grouse with 200 revolutions to the minute. To kill 

 bustard treat them on the same basis as the smaller game that 

 appears faster but is not." 



In former times the Bustard was considered a great delicacy for 

 the table, as, mdeed, were many other birds which it would take a 

 very hungry man to tackle now-a-days. As also with many other 

 birds, recent diet has much to do with its flavour, and whilst often 

 its flesh may be found quite palatable, at other times it may be 

 almost uneatable. Gates says : — 



The Great Bustard has a peculiar and very disagreeable smell 

 when alive, and its flesh is not now held in much esteem. Dr. E. T. 

 Aitchinson informs us that when he was on the Afghan Delimitation 

 Commission, a flock of these Bustards was met with, and Lieut. 

 Kawlins succeeded in shooting one, but the stench of the bird was so 



