THE KORI AND THE GREAT BUSTARD 



THERE are between thirty and forty species of the 

 bustard family distributed over the face of the Old World, 

 a considerable proportion of which are indigenous to 

 Africa south of the Sahara, the Cape and Orange River 

 Colony, the Transvaal, Natal, and Rhodesia, and, indeed, 

 South Africa generally, boasting their quota of these 

 magnificent game birds. 



The bustard is essentially a land bird, and inhabits wide, 

 open plains and steppes, upon which it may roam at large 

 and sight its enemies from afar. 



Some two centuries ago the great bustard (otis tarda) 

 first cousin to the kori (eupoditis kori) of the veld used 

 to inhabit the wild, open plains, moors, and fenlands of 

 Great Britain in considerable flocks. But owing to the 

 inveterate persecution of its arch-enemy, man, who used 

 every conceivable device to destroy it, this noble bird 

 has to all intents and purposes been extinct in the British 

 Isles for the past hundred years or longer. 



One of the many questionable modes of capturing the 

 bustard was as follows : A certain spot on a plain or fen 

 frequented by a flock of bustards used to be baited with 

 grain, within range of a masked battery of fowling-pieces 

 which were so laid that a man hiding up at a considerable 

 distance from the scene of slaughter could by means 

 of a long line discharge the guns simultaneously when the 



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