206 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



"Only an occasional bird is to be seen at any other season of 

 the year, but about the end of June they arrive in great numbers in 

 the Kathiawar Vids for the purpose of breeding. The large Vids 

 round Eajkot, such as Kalipat, Kotaria, Ghanteshwar, Damalpur, etc., 

 are celebrated for them at this season of the year, and I have here 

 seen over twenty birds in one morning. 



" There seems always to be a preponderance of cock birds, hut 

 perhaps they are more in evidence than the hens, owing to then' 

 habit of jumping, and hens are, I think, at all times more difficult to 

 flush than are the cocks. I cannot say where the greater number 

 betake themselves after the breeding-season is past, but it is an un- 

 doubted fact that very few remain in the Province, as they are rarely 

 met with in the cold weather." 



Captain G. F. S. Eouth writes me that he took four eggs of this 

 Bustard, two showing slight signs of incubation, on the 5th August, 

 1913, at Marwar. The nest was a mere oval depression in the ground 

 with a few grass-blades strewn in it. 



Allusion has already been made to the curious habit displayed by 

 this bird of jumping into the air, to some height above the surround- 

 ing vegetation, in order to attract the notice of the opposite sex. 

 Generally it is the male alone which resorts to this trick, but some- 

 times, at all events, the female also does indulge in it. Hume himself 

 says that he has seen the female jumping, though he adds that this 

 is only for the purpose of catching flies, etc., as they are disturbed 

 from the grass. Mr. Wenden, however, whom Hume quotes, dis- 

 tinctly saw the female bird as well as the male jumping, and thus 

 describes his experience : — 



On the 16th 1 went out and watched this bird for more than an 

 hour, just about the time at which she had been flushed on the morn- 

 ing before from the single egg. From the tree on which 1 sat, with 

 my binoculars, 1 saw her running rapidly out of the dense preserve, 

 across the open and into the scanty patch in which was her egg. 

 Here she moved about for some minutes feeding, and every now and 

 then sprang into the air with a low, clucking cry, which was answered 

 ))y the male bird from the preserve, though at first I could not see 

 him. Then, as though a sudden thought liad struck her, she darted 

 to the nest, and after one or two springs, and walking round and 

 round the egg, she squatted and deposited another. While she sat, 

 she was silent, but the male bird, who had now advanced closer to 

 me, kept springing in the air and crying continually. The operation 

 of laying the egg seemed to last about twenty minutes, i.e., from the 



