The Great Bustard 251 



(if any) as may exist on the naked decline — say skeleton thistles, 

 a tuft of wild asparagus, or on rare occasion some natural bank 

 or tiny rain -scoop. 



Having now succeeded in placing his guns unseen and within 

 a fatal radius, the leader may congratulate himself that his main 

 object has been achieved. On the nearness of the line to the 

 game, and on his correct diagnosis of the bustards' flight depends 

 the issue. 



[It may be added that bustard are occasionally found in situa- 

 tions that offer no reasonable hope of a successful drive. It 

 may then (should no others be known within the radius of action) 

 become advisable gently to "move" the inexpugnable troop; 

 remembering that once these birds realise that they are being 

 " driven," the likelihood of subsequently putting them over the 

 guns has enormously decreased. There accrues an incidental 

 advantage in this operation, for after " moving " them to more 

 favouring ground, it will not be necessary to line-up the guns 

 quite so near as is usually essential to success. For bustards 

 possess so strong an attachment to their querencias, or individual 

 haunts, that they may be relied upon, on being disturbed a 

 second time, to wing a course more or less in the direction of 

 their original position. We give a specific instance of this 

 later. 



Each pack of bustard has its own querencia, and will be 

 found at certain hours to frequent certain places. This local 

 knowledge, if obtainable, saves infinite time and vast distances 

 traversed in search of game whose approximate positions, after 

 all, may thus be ascertained beforehand.] 



Now we have placed our guns in line and within that short 

 distance of the unsuspecting game that all but assures a certain 

 shot. We cannot, let us confess, recall many moments in life of 

 more tense excitement than those spent thus, lying prone on the 

 gentle slope listening with every sense on stretch for the cries of 

 the galloping beaters as in wild career they urge the huge birds 

 towards a fatal course. Before us rises the curving ridge, its 

 summit sharply defined against an azure sky — azure but empty. 

 Now the light air wafts to our ear the tumultuous pulsations of 

 giant wings, and five seconds later that erst empty ether is 

 crowded with two score huoe forms. What a scene — and wh;it 



