BUSTARDS 



to be merely a corruption of the Dutch name, knor- 

 haan, or scolding cock — a very fitting description — 

 bestowed by the old-time Boer settlers upon the harsh- 

 throated black bustard on making their first acquaint- 

 ance with that handsome yet most annoying bird. 

 Two of the most beautiful of the lesser Cape bustards 

 are the Vaal and the blue koorhaans, birds of splendid 

 form and colouring, good equally for sport or for the 

 table. Another very beautiful bustard is the bush 

 koorhaan, a denizen of bush and forest country, with 

 its notable pinkish crest, its intense black under- 

 plumage, and its handsomely speckled black and 

 rufous back. This bird gets up most silently before 

 the gunner, wavers through the trees with a flight 

 not unlike that of a woodcock, and affords not only 

 pretty shooting, but excellent eating. Two very fine 

 South African bustards are Ludwig's and the Stanley 

 bustards, splendid game-birds, standing in size inter- 

 mediate between the so-called koorhaans and the giant 

 paauw. 



The paauw itself may well be termed the king of all 

 the bustards. It attains a length of more than four 

 feet, a wing-spread of eight feet four inches, and a 

 weight of as much as fifty pounds. The weight de- 

 pends, of course, greatly upon the bird's feeding. 

 Average well-fed specimens will scale from twenty-five 

 to thirty-five pounds. But at certain seasons this 

 magnificent bird feeds greedily upon the gum exuding 

 from the thorny acacia, and puts on flesh and fat in a 

 quite amazing manner. This habit is so well known that 

 the Boers usually call the bird '' Gom (or gum) paauw." 

 In big locust years, too, the paauw gains flesh with 

 great rapidity. At such seasons well-fed male speci- 

 mens will attain enormous bulk and fatness, and are 

 to be found ranging between thirty -five and forty 



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