xxx GAME BIRDS FOR SPORT AND POT 303 



Bustards vary from the great bustard or pauw down 

 to various varieties of Koorhaun. None are capable 

 of providing much sport, but all are prized for the pot. 

 The great bustard is a magnificent bird, and appa- 

 rently knows it. An old cock will weigh 35 to 40 lb. 

 — some people, indeed, put them much higher ; and 

 when two or three are strutting about on a bare plain, 

 they have an appearance of conceit beside which the 

 peacock is almost modest. When molested at all they 

 are very shy, and can only be obtained with a rifle. 

 Distributed over all the great plains, the species used 

 to be especially common on the great Athi ; I am sorry 

 to see lately a great diminution. Perhaps at the 

 present day there are more along the plains which 

 border the western slopes of Kenia than anywhere 

 else in the Protectorate. 



Francolin are present in great variety, and it is to 

 them and to the guinea-fowl that the settler usually 

 looks for his Sunday's sport and his week-day's 

 dinner. 



The following francolins are found, and the list is 

 probably not yet complete : Jackson's, Gedge's, Coqui, 

 Hubbard's, Grant's, Kirk's, Uluensis, Streptophorus, 

 Elgonensis, Kikuyuensis, Hildebrandt's, Schuett's, 

 Humboldt's, Pternistes cranchi, Ptemistes boehmi, and 

 the Spurfowl. 



This is a long list, but for actual purposes it may be 

 reduced to the ubiquitous spurfowl, of which perhaps 

 twenty are killed to one of all the other varieties put 

 together. This fine bird, which may be distinguished 

 by his bare yellow throat and his upright carriage, 

 is widely distributed throughout the Protectorate. 

 Wherever there is cultivation, along the edges of 

 streams or swamps, or in low scrub along a forest, you 



