THE GREAT-BUSTARD 547 



droves or " bandas," varying from a dozen or so to about forty in 

 number, but sometimes three or four of these flocks will temporarily 

 unite, and Colonel Verner has more than once seen as many as 

 seventy-four in a single drove, 1 while Messrs. Chapman and Buck 

 state that in September they have seen as many as two hundred 

 together ! 



Each drove has its own particular terrain just as of old the 

 Swaffham and Thetford flocks kept to their respective districts and 

 though they may join forces occasionally for a time, they soon return 

 to their own beats. There are almost always a few bearded old males, 

 while the rest of the drove may consist of hens or immature males, 

 for at first the two are not easily distinguished, although the first 

 traces of the moustache begin to show towards the end of the first year, 

 and the bristles are about one and a half inches long by January, 

 They are, however, shed in the following June, but begin to reappear 

 in the following November. Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, who has kept 

 these birds in confinement for many years, is of opinion that the 

 males are not fully adult, with the chestnut pectoral bands and 

 fully inflatable pouches, till about five years old, though the females 

 probably attain maturity a season earlier. 2 



The display of these old males is of a very remarkable character, 

 and at once suggests a likeness to that of the domestic turkey. In 

 freedom one sees little more than the sudden conversion of a tawny 

 patch in the distance into a larger mass of white followed shortly 

 after by the appearance of other white objects which appear and 

 disappear on the wide vega as the birds revolve slowly. But as the 

 bird also displays in confinement, we are able to see that the effect is 

 produced by trailing the outspread wings to the ground with head 

 thrown back and inflated neck, and erecting the tail till it projects 

 forward to meet the distended neck. The tail is held in this position 

 by the aid of the long quill feathers. At the same time the scapulars 



1 My Life among the Wild Birds in Spain, p. 135. 

 8 W. H. St. Quintin, Naturalist, 1910, p. 110. 



