422 STRUTHIONIM. 



far from any habitations, and it only approaches villages 

 when deep snows interfere with its means of subsistence ; 

 they are in families in autumn, and later in the season 

 these broods unite, forming flocks, consisting of from forty 

 to two hundred individuals. In this state they may be 

 seen from the beginning of December till March, when 

 they again divide and disperse. 



The Great Bustard is found in Spain, Provence, Italy, 

 Dalmatia, the Levant, and, according to M. Temminck, on 

 the plains of Greece. The Russian naturalists who accom- 

 panied the expedition from their own country to the Cau- 

 casus, say, this bird is found in winter at the foot of the 

 mountain, and in the vicinity of the river Don. 



So much of the natural history of the Great Bustard is 

 included in the various quotations and notices already 

 inserted, that little remains to be added. These birds 

 are polygamous, the males only attending the females till 

 the latter begin their task of incubation. The female lays 

 two or three eggs in a depression on the bare ground. The 

 eggs are olive-brown in colour, sparingly and indistinctly 

 blotched with greenish broccoli-brown : length two inches 

 eleven lines, by two inches two lines in breadth. The 

 birds feed on green corn, grasses, trefoil, and other vegeta- 

 bles ; are said to kill and eat small mammalia, and from 

 their partiality to marshy ground, I have no doubt they 

 also devour small reptiles. In the summer they conceal 

 themselves in standing corn, generally wheat or rye, and 

 later in the season, in large fields of high turnips ; they also 

 frequent chalk pits when they are partly overgrown with 

 bushes or rank vegetation. As an article of food, the flesh 

 of the Bustard is highly esteemed, and Mr. Gould says 

 that on the Continent, the bird is frequently to be seen 

 exposed in the markets for sale. About the year 1817 or 



