xv AN UNCAGED ZOO 183 



The great black and white bustard (Eupodotis kori), 

 \vhen disturbed, has a curious way of flying around in 

 concentric circles. When alarmed bastards rise clumsily 

 on the wing and make a wide circuit before alighting, 

 but if followed up, the birds make a narrower circuit 

 and so on until they finally alight near the spot from 

 which they were originally disturbed. Taking advan- 

 tage of this fact, we were able, without much trouble, 

 to secure some of these large birds for our larder. 

 When roasted the flesh of a bustard is as delectable as 

 that of a turkev. These large birds weigh more than 



w 



t \ventv pounds, and examples have been recorded which 

 weighed twenty-five pounds. Such birds will have an 

 expanse of wing measuring eight feet in width. There 

 is a smaller species of bustard which we obtained at 

 Njaro. 



I was very interested in the bustard because two 

 species formerly lived in England. The Great Bustard 

 (Olis torcfo) only became extinct in Norfolk about 1838. 

 The smaller bustard (Otis tetrax] occasionally straggles 

 to our shores. The museum at Salisbury contains two 

 stuffed specimens of the Great Bustard, said to be the 

 last examples of this bird shot on Salisbury Plain. 

 When the gizzard-; were opened they contained, among 

 other stones, some Hint arrow heads. 



I have seen the Great Bustard stalking about the 

 fields in the south-west of Spain, near Utrera. These 

 birds eat berries, seed, larvae, molluscs, frogs, young 

 corn, and juicy plants. A live frog swallowed by a 

 bustard must have an uncomfortable time among the 

 stones in this bird's gizzard. Imagine the agony of 

 being slowly ground to death in a gizzard-mill. 



The Bee-eaters, with their wonderful coloration, 

 graceful forms, and activity, could not fail to attract 

 the attention of the least observant. It was delightful 

 to watch one sitting on the twigs of a leafless tree, and 

 then see it suddenly dart in the air and snap an insect 

 on the wing, like a flycatcher, and return to the bush 



