160 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



obtained by Colonel A. E. Ward, near Hajan, Kashmir, in December, 

 1906, and recorded in Vol. xvii of the ' Journal of the Bombay Natural 

 History Society ' ; the other two are recorded by Mr. F. J. Mitchell 

 in Vol. XX of the same journal. Of these two latter, one was 

 shot by Major Brown during a duck drive on the Hooka Sar Jhil 

 in 1910, and the second by Major Smith near the Woolar Lake in 

 early 1911. 



Hartert defines the range of the eastern form as follows : " The 

 eastern sub-species nests in Siberia, eastwards to Kainsh in the Tomsk 

 Government, to the Sainan-Nor, Afghanistan and East Turkestan, 

 westwards through Transcaspia, the South Russian steppes to the 

 Government of Kiew, Poltawa, Podolsk, and perhaps Sarataw, 

 Samara, and Orenburg to Greece, Eumania, the valley of the 

 Danube to Austria. I suppose that also the Little Bustards which 

 breed occasionally, though apparently irregularly, in Poland, probably 

 in East and certainly once in West Prussia, in the Mark Brandenburg 

 and Thuringia, as well as others in Sardinia, Sicily, and certainly 

 those that nest in Puglie and Capitanta, near Foggia, in South Italy, 

 belong to the eastern race." 



The Little Bustard is, of course, only a cold-weather visitant to 

 India, arriving early in October and leaving in March, occasionally 

 staying as late as the first week or two in April. These dates are 

 very rough, but there is a curious absence of all records as to this 

 bird's appearance and disappearance from Indian limits, and an 

 almost equal lack of accounts of its ever being shot or hawked. 



Nidification. — Dresser says that during the breeding season the 

 male has a harsh cry which may be syllabized as tree, free, and 

 which can be heard from a great distance, and Colonel Willoughby 

 Verner says that when alarmed, the Western Little Bustard " utters 

 a loud guttural rattling cry, somewhat similar to that of a grouse 

 calling in early morning and even more like that given by the 

 Bustard which we came across on the veldt between the Orange and 

 Modder Eivers during the eventful days of November 1899." 



The Lesser Bustard, like other birds of the family, is generally 

 considered to be polygamous, and constant fighting between the 

 males goes on throughout the breeding-season for the females, who 

 appear to be indifferent to what male takes them as long as they 



