The Great Bustard 253 



easily killed, and with AAA shot may be dropped stone-dead at 

 80 and even at 100 yards. A pair of guns may thus profitably 

 be brouo-ht into action. 



Bustards seldom run, but they walk very fast, especially when 

 alarmed. Between the inception of a drive and the moment of 

 flushing we have known them to cover half a mile, and many 

 drives fail owing to game having completely altered its orio-inal 

 position. Instances have occurred of bustards walking over the 

 dividing ridge, to the amazement of the prostrate sportsmen on 

 the hither slope. Strange to say, when winged they do not 

 make off, but remain where they have fallen, and an old male 

 will usually show fight. Of course if left alone and out of sioht 

 a winged bustard will travel far. 



In weight cock-bustard vary from, say, 20 to 22 lbs. in 

 autumn up to 28 to 30 lbs. in April. The biggest old males in 

 spring reach 33 and 34 lbs., and one we presented to the National 

 Collection at South Kensington scaled 37 lbs. The breast-bone 

 of these big birds is usually quite bare, a horny callosity, owino- 

 to friction with the ground while squatting, and the heads and 

 necks of old males usually exhibit gaps in their gorgeous sprino- 

 plumage — indicative of severe encounters among themselves. 

 Hen-bustard seldom exceed 15 lbs. at any season. 



Bustard are usually found in troops varying from half-a-dozen 

 birds to as many as 50 or 60, and in September we have seen 

 200 together. 



Bustard -shooting — by which we mean legitimate drivino- 

 during the winter months, September to April — is necessarily 

 uncertain in results. Some days birds may not even be seen, 

 though this is unusual, while on others many big bands may be 

 met with. Hence it is difficult to put down an averao-e, thouo-h 

 we roughly estimate a bird a gun as an excellent day's work. A 

 not unusual bag for six guns will be about eight head ; but we 

 have a note of two days' shooting in April (in two consecutive 

 years) when a party of eight guns, all well-known shots, secured 

 21 and 22 bustard respectively, together with a single lesser 

 bustard on each day. This was on lands between Alcantarillas 

 and Las Cabezas, but it is fair to add that the ground had been 

 carefully preserved by the owner and the operation organised 

 regardless of expense. 



A minor difficulty inherent to this pursuit is to select the 



