Great Bustard. 341 



white. The adult male is also furnished with long wiry feathers, 

 depending laterally from the chin, and moustaches of the same ; 

 the female, which is only about one- third in size as compared 

 with the other sex, has no lateral chin feathers or moustaches, 

 and her head and neck are of a deeper gray, but in other 

 respects her plumage is similar to that of the male. Of large 

 and bulky form, but with powerful wings as well as legs, the 

 Bustard likes to wander over a wide extent of country. More- 

 over, it is of a roving disposition, and loves vast open plains, 

 where amidst the long coarse grass and the fields of corn and 

 thick gorse it delights to dwell, and it will also frequent marshy 

 ground when such tracts are to be found near its favourite 

 haunts. Its food consists chiefly of herbage and grain, such as 

 rye and barley, stalks as well as ears, and insects, such as beetles ; 

 but reptiles and the smaller mammalia are also greedily devoured 

 by this omnivorous bird. The nest is a mere depression on the 

 bare ground, and there the hen bird lays her two eggs. As 

 autumn approaches they unite in flocks, and during deep and 

 continued snows are sometimes driven from their open plains to 

 more sheltered and enclosed districts. They are exceedingly 

 bold and pugnacious, having on rare occasions been known to 

 attack those who come near them with most determined ferocity. 

 They are at the same time generally very wild and difficult to 

 approach, so that sportsmen were accustomed to mask their 

 advance, as they do at this day in Spain, by means of a stalking- 

 horse. When in repose Bustards usually rest with one leg drawn 

 up, and with head reclining backwards on the neck. When seen 

 at a distance Gilbert White said they resembled ' fallow deer ' a 

 fact corroborated by Mr. Wolley, who saw them in Spain, appar- 

 ently walking in file, some with their heads down, as he was 

 ascending the Guadalquivir in a steamboat. When they take 

 wing they generally rise to a considerable height above the 

 ground, and will fly, often at an elevation of a hundred yards, 

 with a regular, but by no means slow flap of the wings, for 

 several miles before they alight again. Older writers on birds, 

 one after another, assured us that the Great Bustard was hunted 



