CHAPTER XXV 



THE GREAT BUSTARD {Continued) 



The following illustrates in outline a day's bustard-shooting and 

 incidentally shows how strongly haunted these birds are, each 

 pack to its own particular locality. 



On reaching our point (a seventeen-kilometres' drive), the 

 scouts sent out the day before reported three bands numbering 

 roughly forty, forty, and sixteen — in all nearly a hundred birds. 

 The nearest lot was to the west. These we found easily, and 

 B. F. B. got a brace, right-and-left, without incident. 



Riding back eastwards, the second pack had moved, but we 

 shortly descried the third, in two divisions, a mile away. It 

 being noon, the bustards were mostly lying down or standing 

 drowsily, and we halted for lunch before commencing the 

 operation. 



During the afternoon we drove this pack three times, secur- 

 inff a brace on first and third drives, while on the second the 

 birds broke out to the side. 



Now bustards are, in Spanish phrase, niuy querenciosos, i.e. 

 attached to their own particular terrain ; and as in these three 

 drives we had pushed them far beyond their much-loved limit, 

 they were now restless and anxious to return. 



Already before our guns had reached their posts for a fourth 

 drive, seven great bustards were seen on the wing, and a few 

 minutes later the remaining thirty took flight, voluntarily, the 

 whole phalanx shaping their course directly towards us. The 

 outmost gun was still moving forward to his post under the crest 

 of the hill, and the pack, seeing him, swerved across our jline 

 below, and (these guns luckily having seen what was passing 

 and taken cover) thus lost another brace of their number. 



The bustards shot to-day (January IG), though all full-grown 



males, only weighed from 25^ to 26^ lbs. apiece. Two months 



256 



