OTIS TETBAX ORIENTALIS 161 



have a husband of some kind. Messrs. Chapman and Buck, how- 

 ever, disagreeing with the above, write : " They are strictly mono- 

 gamous, yet the males ' show off' in the same fantastic way as 

 Great Bustard and Blackcock." 



In the more northern parts of its breeding range the eggs of the 

 Little Bustard are laid late in May and early in June, but further 

 south most will be found in the first fortnight of May and some in 

 the end of April. 



I have eggs from East Prussia, dated 26th June, and another 

 clutch from Italy, dated 13th April. 



Their breeding habits and nidification, if such it can be called, 

 seem to closely resemble those of the Great Bustard. There is no 

 nest, though sometimes the depression which contains the eggs may 

 be more or less filled up with grass and weeds, and the constant 

 lying on this may have formed it into a hollow cup. They select, 

 or themselves make, this depression either in standing crops of grain 

 or mustard or under shelter of a bush or patch of grass in an open 

 plain, and the hen sits very close when once incubation has begun. 



Colonel Verner thus describes the nests of the Little Bustard 

 taken by him in Spain, and the description would stand equally wel 

 for those of our Eastern form. 



"Few nests are more difficult to find than the Little Bustards', 

 especially when they are amid the rank herbage on the fallow lands 

 or the asphodel, when they are as well concealed as a Partridge's 

 or Quail's. They are almost equally baffling when on the plains 

 amongst the thousands of acres of waving reeds, 2 ft. or 3 ft. in 

 height, which permit of the old bird running for an indefinite distance 

 from the nest before taking wing. The same remark applies to those 

 placed amongst the standing corn. 



" The nest varies much in its size and construction, being at 

 times a well-compacted mass of dried grasses and herbage and in 

 others little more than a chance collection of debris. Where a nest 

 is well concealed, the female will sit very close and not betray its 

 situation until almost trodden upon, whereas in more exposed 

 situations she usually slips off and, crouching, runs some distance 

 before taking wing. 



" The nest here shown was amidst a dense growth of coarse 



herbage, in which ox-eye daisies and dandelions predominated. The 



bird only left when I was within 2 feet of her and in her scuffle and 



alarm drove a claw through one of the eggs. To get a photograph 



11 



