BIRDS. 133 



occasions, to supply the hen when sitting, or the young before 

 thev can fly. 



Like all other birds of the poultry kind, they change their 

 mates at the season of incubation, which is about the latter end 

 of summer. They separate in pairs, if there be a sufficiency of 

 females tor the males : but when this happens to be otherwise, 

 the males fight until one of them falls. In France, they often 

 find some of those victims to gallantry dead in the fields, and 

 no doubt are not displeased at the occasion. 



They make their nests upon the ground, only just scraping a 

 hole in the earth, and sometimes lining it with a little long grass 

 or straw. There they lay two eggs only, almost of the size of 

 a goose egg, of a pale olive brown, marked with sj)ots of a 

 darker colour. They hatch in about five weeks, and the young 

 ones run about as soon as they are out of the shell. 



The female is not much more than half the size of the male. The top of 

 her head is of a deep orange, and the rest of the head bro\\'n. Her colours 

 are not so bright as those of the male, and she wants the tuft ou each side 

 of the head. She also wants the reservoir. 



There are eleven species of this bird ; viz. the Arabian Passurage, RufiFed, 

 Indian, White.eared, White-chinned, Thick-kneed, Chilese, Great and 

 Little Bustard. Tlie two latter are natives of our island. 



The Litt/e Bustard. — Leng-th only seventeen inches. The bill is pale 

 brown ; irides red ; the top of the head is black, spotted with pale rust 

 coloiu- ; the sides of the head, the cliin, and throat, are of a reddish \i'hite, 

 marked with a few dark spots ; the whole neck is black, encircled with an 

 irregular band of white near tlie top and bottom ; the back and wings are 

 rust-colour, mottled \vith brown, and crossed with fine irregular black 

 lines ; the under parts of the body, and outer edges of the wings, are white. 

 The tail consists of eighteen feathers ; the middle ones are tawny, barred 

 with black ; the others are white, marked with a few irregular bands of 

 black : the legs are grey. The female is smaller, and has not the black col- 

 lar on the neck ; in other respects she nearly resembles the male. 



This bird is very uncommon in this country. It is very common in France, 

 where it is taken in nets, like the partridge. It is a very shy and running 

 bi'd; if disturbed, it flies two or three hundred paces, not far from the 

 ground, and then runs a^vay much faster than one can follow on foot. The 

 female lays her eggs in June, to the number of three or fovu-j of a glossy 

 green colour : as soon as the young are hatched, she leads them about, as 

 the hen does her chickens. They begin to fly about the middle of August 

 Both this and the great bustard are excellent eating, and, we should ima- 

 gine, would well repay the trouble of domestication ; indeed, it seems sur- 

 prising that we should suffer these fine birds to run wild, and be in danger 

 of total extinction, which, if properly cultivated, might afford as excellent 

 a repast as our own domestic poultry, or even as the turkey, for which wo 

 are indebted to distant countries. 



III. M 



