THE GREAT-BUSTARD 549 



A bird which has been worsted, and lost or broken some of its 

 quills in the encounter, besides being thoroughly saturated with heavy 

 dews from the rank growth of weeds and thistles around, may be 

 rendered for a time quite incapable of flight. The capture of an 

 occasional bird in this state led to the erroneous idea that they 

 moulted all their quills at once. Observation of birds kept in 

 captivity, confirmed by notes in the field, however, has proved that 

 the moult of the primaries and secondaries is a lengthy and gradual 

 process, and that it does not take place in the spring, but in the late 

 summer and autumn. 1 



The season of display begins in February or sometimes March, 

 and now we come to one of the problems in the life of this species 

 the question as to whether it is polygamous or pairs. At first sight 

 it seems that much of the evidence points to polygamy. There is the 

 acknowledged fact that the birds remain in little bands or flocks, 

 which for the greater part of the year contain a few adult males and 

 a much larger number of females and immature birds. Then, when 

 the hens go to nest and the eggs are laid, they are entirely deserted 

 by the males, who assemble again in droves, and keep quite apart from 

 them. (Curiously enough, a certain amount of display still goes on in 

 these bachelor parties.) 



But, on the other hand, an old cock bird kept in a run with two 

 hens by Mr. St. Quintin, paired with one hen and took no notice 

 whatever of the second. After the hen had begun to incubate, when 

 either her mate or another immature cock came near to the place, she 

 would utter several gruff barks as though to warn them off, as they 

 approached the place cautiously with outstretched necks. 2 Naumann, 

 whose observations on this species are marked with great care, 

 believed that normally each cock paired with one hen, but that 

 occasionally a male might meet with another unpaired hen after his 

 first mate had gone to nest, and contract a second union with her. 



1 Cf . A. Chapman, Wild Sjmin, p. 342 ; British Birds, iv. pp. 32, 190 ; and Unexplored 

 Spain, p. 260. * Naturalist, 1910, p. 111. 



VOL. III. 4B 



