126 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



thinks it cannot be seen, it pulls up, and, raising its head as 

 high as possible, takes a good look at its pursuers. Not un- 

 frequently it then concludes to squat, and though you may 

 have been, unobserved, watching it carefully, whilst it was only 

 watching others of the party coming from an opposite direction, 

 it becomes absolutely invisible the moment it settles down at 

 the foot of a bush or stone. Once it has thus settled, especially 

 if it is hot and about noon, you may walk past it within ten 

 yards without flushing it, if you walk carelessly and keep look- 

 ing in another direction. 



11 But it is weary work trudging on foot, under an Indian 

 sun, after birds that run as these can and will, and in the dis- 

 tricts where they are plentiful, people always either hawk them 

 or shoot them from camels. 



" Off a camel, a large bag is easily made, and as, whilst 

 after these Bustards, you get from time to time shots at Ante- 

 lope or Ravine-Deer, Quail, Partridges, and, on rare occasions, 

 a Great Bustard also, it is not bad fun, though rather monoto- 

 nous, like the scenery that surrounds one. 



" In some parts of the country, the Houbara greatly affect 

 fields of mustard and other crops yielding the oil-seeds of com- 

 merce, of which there is a vast variety, known by half a dozen 

 different names, in almost every province. 



" I have occasionally seen them in wheat, barley, and other 

 grain fields, but only when these were young and tender." 



Nest. None. 



Eggs. Two or three in number ; clay-brown or olive-brown 

 in colour, with faint underlying spots and blotches of purplish- 

 grey, the overlying spots being dark brown and generally some- 

 what longitudinal in shape. Axis, 2-2-2-55 inches; diam., 

 i -6-1 8. 



THE THICK-KNEES. SUB-ORDER (EDICNEMI. 



The Thick-knees, or Stone-Curlews, form an intermediate 

 group between the Bustards and the Plovers, and they have 

 been called before now Thick-kneed Bustards, as well as 

 Norfolk " Plovers." Stone-" Curlew " is not a good name for 

 these birds, as they have little to do with the True Curlews 



