EUPODOTIS EDWARDSI 175 



off. The female lays one or two eggs of a dark olive-green, faintly 

 blotched with dusky. I have killed the young, half-grown, in March 

 near Saugor. 



The Bustard has another call heard not unfrequently, com- 

 pared by some to a bark or a bellow, chiefly heard, however, when 

 the bird is alarmed. This is compared by the natives to the word 

 ]iook, hence the name of hookna, by which it is known to the 

 villagers about Gwalior. When raised, it generally takes a long 

 flight, sometimes three or four miles, with a steady, continued flap- 

 ping of its wings, at no great distance from tlie ground, and I never 

 found that it had any difficulty in rising, not even requiring to run 

 one step, as I have many times had occasion to observe when 

 flushing them in long grass or wheat-fields. On the open bare 

 plains, it will sometimes run a step or two before mounting in the 

 air. A writer in the ' Bengal Sporting Magazine ' asserts that he 

 has known the Bustard ridden down, and that after two or three 

 flights it is so exhausted as to allow of its capture. I imagine 

 that a healthy bird would tire out the best horse and rider before 

 giving in." 



Eeferring to Jerdon's remarks on the "showing off" of the male 

 bird at the commencement of the breeding-season, Hume remarks : — 



" The way in which the male expands the throat at times during 

 the breeding-season is most extraordinary. Twice I have closely 

 watched the whole process through binoculars. First the male 

 begins to strut about, holding his head up as high as if he wanted 

 to lift himself off his legs ; then after a few turns, he puffs out the 

 upper part of the throat just under the jaws, then draws it in again, 

 then puffs it out again, and so on, two, tiiree or four times, and then, 

 suddenly, out goes the whole throat down to the breast, and that 

 part of it next tlie latter swells more and more ; his tail, already 

 cocked, begins to turn right back, over the back, and the lower throat 

 bag gets bigger and bigger, and longer and longer, till it looks to be 

 within six inches of the ground. All the feathers of the throat stand 

 out, and looked at in front, he seems to have a huge bag covered 

 with feathers hanging down between his legs, which wobbles about 

 as he struts here and there with wings partly unclosed, and 

 occasional sharp snappings of his bill. From time to time he utters 

 a sort of deep moan, and stands quite stiU, and then off he struts 

 again close up to the female, and then away from her. On both 

 occasions that I witnessed these antics, the excitement seemed 

 gradually to relax, and no connubialities resulted. Whether this is 

 usually a prelude to such, or a mere nautch for the edification of the 

 female, like the peacock's grand display, I cannot tell, but I am 

 inclined to believe the latter," 



