30 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



on horse-back and this may be true when they are found in places 

 where relays of horses and horsemen can take up the pursuit, 

 otherwise it seems incredible that birds of such power of wing 

 should be thus tired out and caught. They can certainly fly faster 

 than any horse can gallop across country, unless for a very short 

 distance, and if not at once put up by a fresh horse and rider and 

 forced to fly again, would have ample time to recover before its 

 exhausted pursuer could come to close quarters. 



During the non-breeding season the Bustard is generally found 

 in flocks (or droves, as flocks of these birds are usually termed). 

 These droves may number anything from half a dozen to twenty 

 birds, but, according to some authors, they are often seen together 

 in much larger numbers than this, and Hume speaks of parties of 

 50 Bustards being seen together; whilst Colonel Willoughby 

 Verner speaks to himself having seen 74 birds together in 

 Andalucia; and Col. Irby records that "Bustards 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." Very often these 

 droves may break up and scatter over a large area of country when 

 feeding, but when disturbed, leaving the ground for some other, 

 they again unite and fly off" together. 



Bustards are very omnivorous, but their food undoubtedly con- 

 sists mainly of grasshoppers and other insects, in addition to 

 which they eat all sorts of grain and a good deal of green vegetable 

 matter. When hungry or at all hard-pressed for foo 1 they will eat 

 worms, small lizards, snakes, small mammals, such as shrews, mice, 

 etc., and also the eggs of such other birds as deposit them on the 

 ground. It has, like others of this family, a quaint habit of pick- 

 ing up and toying with any small bright object it may come across 

 and also of swallowing the same, either by accident or design. In 

 the same way small pebbles have often been taken from the internal 

 arrangements of Bustards, but these are probably only swallowed 

 as an aid to digestion. The specimen shot by Humo's collec- 

 tors was found to have been feeding entirely on green mustard 

 leaves. 



The Bustard is believed by many writers never to drink and 

 probably does so very seldom, but Finn has observed this bird 



