152 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



When hungry or at all hard-pressed for food they will eat worms, 

 small lizards, snakes, small mammals, such as shrews, mice, &c., and 

 also the eggs of such other birds as deposit them on the ground. They 

 have, like others of this family, a quaint habit of picking up and 

 toying with any small bright object they may come across and also of 

 swallowing the same, either by accident or design. Small pebbles, 

 also, have often been taken from the internal arrangements of 

 Bustards, but these are probably only swallowed as an aid to 

 digestion. The specimen shot by Hume's collectors was found to 

 have been feeding entirely on green mustard leaves. 



The Bustard is believed by many writers never to drink, and 

 probably it does so very seldom, but Finn has observed this bird 

 drinking when in confinement in the Zoological Gardens in London, 

 and its not drinking may be a habit from which it departs where 

 water is plentiful. According to Messrs. Chapman and Buck the fact 

 that it does drink often leads to its destruction. They write : — 



" There is, however, one period of the year when the Great 

 Bustard falls an easy prey to the clumsiest of gunners. 



" During the long Andalucian summer a torrid sun has shrunk up 

 every brook and stream that crosses the cultivated lands ; the chinky, 

 cracked mud, which in winter formed the l)ed of shallow lakes and 

 lagoons, now yields no drop of moisture for birds or beasts. The 

 larger rivers still carry their waters from sierra to sea, but an adaptive 

 genius is required to utilise these for purposes of irrigation. All 

 water required for the cattle is drawn up from wells ; the old-world 

 lever with its bucket at one end and its counterpoise at the other has 

 to provide for the needs of all. Tliese wells are distributed all over 

 the plains. As the herdsmen put the primitive contrivances into 

 operation and swing up bucketful after bucketful of cool water, the 

 cattle crowd around, impatient to receive it as it rushes down the 

 stone troughing. The thirsty animals drink their fill, splashing and 

 wasting as much as they consume, so that a puddle is always formed 

 about these bcbideros. The moisture only extends a few yards, 

 gradually diminishing, till the trickling streamlet is lost in the 

 famishing soil. 



"These moist places are a fatal trap to the bustard. Before 

 dawn one of the farm people will conceal himself so as to command 

 at a short range all points of the miniature swamp. A slight hollow 

 is dug for the purpose, having clods arranged around, between which 

 the gun can be levelled with murderous accuracy. As day begins to 

 dawn, the bustard will take a flight in the direction of the well, 



