THE LITTLE BUSTARD. 



345 



remain hard by, ever constant to their sitting partners, 

 and not "packing" or deserting them, as is the wont 

 of their less faithful cousins, Otis tarda. Not till the young 

 are on the wing are the Sisones seen again in packs. This 

 marked difference of habit between congeneric species so 

 closely allied as the two Bustards is very curious. 



Possessed of keen powers of eye and ear, combined 

 with the strongest ideas of self-preservation all round, 

 the Little Bustard is never — in a sporting season — 

 surprised in covert. His favourite haunts are in rough 

 countr}', where he has every opi^ortunity of remaining 



LITTLE BUSTARDS— MAY. 



concealed himself, while yet able to survey all that passes 

 for a wide radius around. Earely does one descry a band 

 of these birds on the ground. The loud rattle of wings as 

 a pack springs 200 yards away is usually the first inti- 

 mation of their presence. If, by some lucky chance, they 

 are seen on the ground, even then the tactics employed to 

 secure the larger bustard, namely, by ambushmg the guns 

 in a half-circle on their front, and driving the birds 

 towards them, seldom, very seldom, come off. The 

 Sisones almost invariably take flight, from some un- 



