548 THE GREAT-BUSTARD 



are set on end as well as the long white inner secondary quills. The 

 head is pressed down on the dilated pouch, and the moustachial 

 bristles, instead of being directed backwards, now project perpendi- 

 cularly on each side of the sunken beak. Meantime, all the snowy 

 feathers of the under tail-coverts, which have come into sight through 

 the depression of the tail, are displayed to the utmost advantage, till 

 viewed from behind the bird appears a huge mass of white feathers, 

 while the wings are gradually recurved forward, each feather standing 

 out by itself. The old male set up at the British Museum of Natural 

 History in the act of displaying, will, however, give a far better idea 

 of the effect than any description. 1 



The females, as in the case of most birds, are apparently quite 

 indifferent to all this display, and the males, though they bicker and 

 occasionally fight among themselves, seldom seem to take their 

 quarrels very seriously. Much of their warlike demeanour is nothing 

 but bluster, and the momentary sparring with an opponent in the act 

 of giving a similar display leads to nothing, and is not followed up 

 by either, each bird continuing to revolve solemnly, and when the 

 display is completed, slowly reverting to its normal shape. Yet 

 sometimes more serious and prolonged struggles do take place, the 

 combatants, after preliminary sparring, seizing one another's beaks, 

 and pushing and pulling till one or the other gives way and runs. 2 



An extraordinary instance of determination is recorded in a 

 German periodical, Weidwerk in Wort und Bild, vi. p. 200. Near 

 Neudamm two cock bustards were seen engaged in a desperate 

 struggle, while several others looked on. Three hours later the 

 observer returned to the same district, and found the fight still in 

 progress. On riding up to the struggling birds, they turned upon him, 

 and were only driven off by blows from a riding-whip. 3 Pet^nyi 

 (Ornithologische Fragmente, p. 324) states that after these contests 

 birds are sometimes picked up in a moribund state. 



1 Cf. W. P. Pycraft, A Book of Birds, p. 155. * Naturalist, 1910, p. 112. 



5 Cf. also Yarrell, 4th Ed., vol. iii., p. 211. 



