OTIS TARDA TARDA 153 



alighting at a point some few hundred yards distant. They satisfy 

 themselves that no enemy is about, and then with cautious, stately 

 step, make for their morning draught. One big bird steps on ahead 

 of the rest, and as he cautiously draws near, he stops now and again 

 to assure himself that all is right and that his companions are coming 

 too — these are not in a compact body, but following at intervals of 

 a few yards. The leader has reached tlie spot where he drank 

 yesterday ; now he finds he must go a little nearer to the well, as 

 the streamlet has been diverted ; another bird follows close ; both 

 lower their heads to drink ; the gunner has them in line — at twenty 

 paces there is no escape ; the trigger is pressed, and two magnificent 

 bustards are done to death. Should the man be provided with a 

 second barrel (which is not usual), a third victim may be added to 

 his morning's spoils." 



Messrs. Chapman and Buck also describe a second method which 

 the Spanish cultivators and cattlemen employ in winter. This is 

 shooting them at night with the assistance of a dark lantern, much 

 in the same way as in India our cultivators in many parts of the 

 country kill deer, or as poachers in Wales spear salmon. 



To cover their movements and to lull the suspicions of the 

 Bustards, the cattlemen carry on their wrists a cattle-bell or cencerro 

 to which the Bustards are accustomed and of which they have no 

 fear. 



Many hens and young birds are also killed by so-called sportsmen 

 during the breeding season, when the hens sit close and the young 

 are not sufficiently advanced to seek safety in flight. 



The two legitimate means of obtaining this grand game-bird are 

 by driving and — a less sporting method — by working them in a 

 grain-cart as one shoots Black-buck in India. The latter method 

 requires no description, for it is well known to most sportsmen in 

 India, but the driving of Bustard requires so much special care and 

 so much local knowledge that I again indent on Messrs. Chapman 

 and Buck for their most interesting account of such a drive : — 



The district having been selected, it is advisable to send out 

 the night before a trustworthy scout who will sleep at the coiiijo 

 and be abroad with the dawn in order to locate precisely the various 

 bandadas, or troops of bustard, in the neighbourhood. The shooting 

 party (three or four guns for choice, but in no case to exceed six) 

 follow in the morning — riding, as a rule, to the rendezvous. 



