December 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE, 



273 



and were always fortunate in seeing them, but only on one 

 occasion were we lucky enough to bring one to bag. 



The country by the river, just below Seville, is admirably 

 suited to the habits of the bustard. The land here is a 

 level plain, like the true marismas which lie further down 

 the river, but unlike the barren marismas, the soil of this 

 land is fertile and produces luxuriant crops of grass and 

 corn. The grass and corn, besides providing them with 

 ample food, form admirable cover for the great bustards 

 when they most need it — in the breeding season. 



To this country, then, we devoted a day in the hope of 

 seeing this, the noblest of game birds, at close quarters ; 

 but to get to close quarters was no easy task. The stalking 

 horse, our deadliest weapon in the marismas, was of no 

 avail, and other methods had to be used. Our men rode 

 the horses, while we walked behind them. We passed 

 through enormous expanses — one cannot call them fields — 

 of pasturage, with great patches of white and yellow 

 flowers blazing and dazzling in the brilliant sun. Just as 

 we were nearlng a vast stretch of corn, one of our men 

 stopped his horse, and shading his keen eyes from the 

 glare, exclaimed, abutanla — bustard. He pointed, and we 

 stared, bat it was some time before we could make out a 

 group of bustards. When we had once made them out, 

 they appeared so big and brown in the grass, that we 

 wondered why we had not seen them before. A careful 

 scrutiny through the binoculars revealed a band of eight — 

 some squatting and only visible when they raised their 

 heads, some standing sleepily, and some pecking at the 

 groixnd here and there in a desultory fashion. We watched 

 the birds some time, and then, after a careful study of the 

 surrounding land and a brief council of war, we all turned oflf 

 to the right. The bustard pays little attention to a man on 

 horseback, and will often allow him to approach within two 

 or three hundred yards, but a man on foot is no sooner seen 

 than avoided. We accordingly kept well hidden behind the 

 horses until we had put some high corn between us and 

 the birds. Here our men left us, and while we lay hidden 

 behind the corn, some hundred yards apart, they galloped 

 round in a wide circuit with the object of getting behind 

 the bustards and driving them over us. Crouched behind 

 the corn we waited, but waited in vain, no bustards 

 appeared. At last one of the men rode up saying that 

 the birds had made off to our right before they could get 

 round them. Luckily they did not fly far, and we soon 

 found them again. The same tactics were resorted to, 

 but were again a failure, and worse still the birds flew so 

 far that we failed to mark them down. Indeed it is no 

 easy matter to drive such wary birds and powerful flyers 

 to a definite point on an immense plain. 



We went on again, and at length found four other 

 bustards in a more advantageous position for a drive. 

 We hid in a deep ditch, and had the advantage of being 

 able to keep the birds in view the whole time. Oar men 

 took a wide circuit, and getting well behind the bustards, 

 closed up quickly. The birds seemed to be very drowsy as 

 they squatted or walked about, but suddenly their heads 

 went up, and as they saw the horsemen advancing they 

 ran a few yards, and then quickly got on the wing. They 

 had looked brown before, but directly they opened their 

 wings, a whitish patch caught the eye, and as they came 

 on with heads outstretched, they looked more like heavy 

 storks than anything we had ever seen. The four birds 

 flew seemingly slowly, but in reality at a great pace, and 

 steered straight for my friend, who fired at the largest as 

 it passed over his head. Down came the great bird an 

 awful crash behind him. We ran up to it and found that 

 it was a young male, perhaps a year old, weighing about 

 fifteen pounds (old males sometimes scale over thirty 



pounds), and wanting the beautiful "whiskers" which 

 adorn the full-grown male. It was only winged, but made 

 no attempt to run away, and when we approached, it 

 pecked at us, and uttered a hissing sort of bark. 



We spent another day after bustard, far from the river, 

 in a country studded with small round-topped hills, covered 

 at the time of our visit with clover and stubble. Bustards 

 seemed plentiful here, and we soon found a party of 

 thirteen and another of four. We lay flat in the stubble 

 on the slopes of the hills, while the men rode round to drive 

 the birds. But the drive was not successful, and owing 

 to the long flight taken by the bustards, and the nature 

 of the ground, it was impossible to mark them down. 



Our last experience with bustards was late in May. 

 We left our boat and the river and proceeded to ride across 

 a vast plain, covered with short, brown, sunburnt grass. 

 We had gone some distance when a great sheet of water 

 suddenly appeared in front of us. The sun was behind 

 us and covered with clouds, and the distance was remark- 

 ably clear. Miles beyond the water we could see trees 

 and houses, and further oS' still a low range of hills, all 

 of which were clearly reflected, while a large herd of cattle, 

 about a mile away, seemed to be standing knee-deep in the 

 water — so perfect was the reflection. 



We pointed it out to our men, but they laughed and 

 said there was no water for miles. " Nonsense," said we, 

 "there it is; can't you see it?" They laughed again. 

 We took our binoculars, and stiU saw water clearly, but 

 the glasses showed it further away instead of nearer. We 

 rode towards our lake, but it receded and receded until it 

 disappeared altogether, and the burnt-up plain appeared 

 as dry and parched as before. 



On this plain were a number of sandgrouse. They 

 were very wild and difllcult to get near. Their sandy 

 colour harmonised so perfectly with the brown grass that 

 it was impossible to see them until they flew up and away 

 like rockets, and so we could not use the stalking horse to 

 approach them. However, several flocks allowed us to 

 come near enough for us to identify them — the black- 

 bellied sandgrouse* by its black beUy, which is very con- 

 spicuous when the bird is flying, and the pin-tailed sand- 

 grouset by the long pointed feathers in its tail. 



At length we reached a great field, strongly fenced, and 

 overgrown with rank grass and weeds as high as our 

 horses' withers. Here we hoped to find the little bustard,] 

 but careful search was difficult owing to the swarms of 

 horse flies, as large and as yellow as hornets, and with a 

 bite that was villainous even through our clothes. More- 

 over, the field contained a number of magnificent black 

 bulls of famous fighting breed, which were enraged by the 

 flies and required constant discouragement with stones or 

 clods of earth. After half-an-hour's search we found a 

 little bustard, which ran swiftly through the long grass 

 and then flew up about a hundred yards away. In general 

 colouring it reminded us of the willow grouse in autumn, 

 by reason of its brown back and conspicuously white wings, 

 but the flight was altogether peculiar. The bird never 

 seemed to raise its wings above its body, but keeping them 

 arched downwards, beat them rapidly, and so flew in an 

 even slope until high up in the air. 



After further search we surprised a great bustard, which 

 also ran from us, and so effectually hid itself in the thick 

 tangle of vegetation that we failed to induce it to fly or to 

 find it again. This bird may have been a female with eggs 

 somewhere in the field, or it may have been a male 

 incapable of flight. Towards the end of May the great 

 bustard loses its quill feathers for a time, and has then to 



* Pterocles arenarius. t Pterocles alchata. J Otis tetrax. 



