264 Unexplored Spain 



quite accidental and exceptional circumstances. And even then 

 (as indicated) the knowledge of their precise position has seldom 

 availed to their undoing. 



By April the males have assumed a splendidly handsome 

 breeding-dress. The neck, swollen out like a jargonelle pear, is 

 clad in rich velvet- black, the long plumes behind glossy and 

 hackle-like, and adorned with a double gorget of white. All this 

 finery is lost by August. Thenceforward the sexes are alike save 

 for the larixer size and brio^hter orano;e of the males, the females 

 being smaller and yellower. They are strictly monogamous, yet 

 the males " show-off" in the same fantastic way as great bustard 

 and blackcock. About mid-Ma}^ the female lays four (rarely 

 five) glossy olive-green eggs in the thick covert of thistles or 

 palmettos. 



In summer the food of the little bustard consists of snails 

 and small grasshoppers, and on the table they are excellent, the 

 breast being large and prominent and displaying both dark and 

 white flesh — the latter, however, being confined to the legs. 



