554 THE GREAT-BUSTARD 



thistle-covered vegas of Southern Spain, busily engaged in feeding on 

 the grasshoppers. " They are working against time, for it will soon 

 be too dark to catch such lively prey. With quick darting step they 

 run to and fro, picking up one grasshopper after another with 

 unerring aim." But even at such times the approach of a man on foot 

 is instantly observed. All heads are raised, every eye is fixed on the 

 intruder there is a momentary pause, and then two quick steps and 

 a spring the broad wings are unfurled, and with easy flapping flight, 

 which looks slow, but is not so in reality, the pack sails away and 

 disappears in the distance. It is only on rare occasions, or when 

 crossing a valley, that they fly at any height. As a rule about two 

 or three hundred feet is the limit, and when seen from a distance 

 the steady beats of the great wings, eight feet from tip to tip, seem 

 to carry the bird but slowly. But when an old cock, all unsuspecting, 

 passes over where one lies half-hidden among the luxuriant weeds, 

 scarcely forty feet overhead, the mighty rush of wind, from the great 

 pinion strokes and the passage of the heavy body through the air, is 

 most impressive. The bulk of the bird, too, looks enormous, and 

 appears greater owing to the amount of white displayed, the snowy 

 breast and under-surface of the arching wings being unrelieved by 

 any tinge of colour, while the orange-tawny of the upper surface, 

 and the lavender colour of the outstretched neck, are soon lost in 

 the distance ; and, as Colonel Verner well remarks, on the wing at a 

 distance a bustard looks as white as a gull. 



