104 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



skulking in the cover until it is flushed within easy gunshot. Its flight is 

 straightforward and rapid, and the wings are moved so quickly that a whirring 

 sound is audible as the bird hurries away, often soaring to a vast height. In 

 this respect it is very different from the Great Bustard, as its flight is not so 

 deliberate, and more like that of a Game Bird. Its movements on the ground 

 partake more of those of birds of that order, and it runs quickly, the females 

 being the most difficult to flush. The presence of the Little Bustard is often 

 betrayed by the utterance of its curious note, which resembles the syllable spurrtz 

 or prut. The food of this species is mostly of a vegetable nature, such as grain, 

 seeds, and the tender buds and shoots of herbage, but the bird also devours 

 insects, snails, frogs, and, it is said, even field mice. Although so gregarious just 

 upon its arrival at its breeding grounds, the flocks soon disperse, and as soon as 

 pairing is over there appears to be not even a social tendency until after the 

 young are reared. As this species breeds in its first spring, no flocks of immature 

 non-nesting birds are ever noticed in the summer haunts, as is almost always the 

 case with the Great Bustard. 



Nidif ication. Although many of the actions of the Little Bustard during 

 the pairing season would seem to prove that this species is polygamous, such is 

 not the case. In the pairing season numbers of birds congregate at certain spots, 

 and the males appear to go through a sort of "lek," like many Game Birds, 

 showing off their charms in various ways to the apparently admiring females, for 

 which conflicts take place between the rivals. Once paired, however, these 

 gatherings disperse, and each male goes off with his mate to assist in the cares of 

 bringing up the brood. About the middle of May the female makes a rude nest 

 on the ground amongst the herbage ; it is little more than a hollow, lined with a 

 few bits of dry grass and weed, and measures seven or eight inches across. The 

 eggs are usually four, sometimes three, and, more rarely, five in number, and 

 vary in ground-colour from olive-brown to olive-green, indistinctly mottled with 

 pale reddish-brown. The shell is glossy and smooth, the pores being very slightly 

 defined. They measure on an average 2'0 inches in length by T5 inch in 

 breadth. The female appears to incubate the eggs, but the male is in close and 

 constant attendance upon his mate. In some cases it would appear that two 

 broods are reared in the year, a second clutch being laid about the end of July, 

 although there is no evidence to show that these late nests are not the produce 

 of birds whose earlier efforts may have been unfortunate. 



Diagnostic characters Otis, with the general colour above buffish- 

 brown, vermiculated with black in the male in summer, blotched with black in the 

 female at both seasons, and in the male in winter, with two black and two white 

 gorgets in the male in summer. Length, 17 inches. 



