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



leader has reached the spot where he drunk yesterday ; now he 

 finds he must go a little nearer to the well, as the streamlet has 

 been diverted ; another bird follows close ; both lower their heads 

 to drink ; the gunner has them in line — at twenty paces there is no 

 escape ; the trigger is pressed, and two magnificent bustards are 

 done to death. Should the man be provided with a second barrel 

 (which is not usual), a third victim may be added to his morning's 

 spoils." 



Messrs. Chapman and Buck also describe a second method which 

 the Spanish cultivators and cattlemen employ in winter. This is 

 shooting them at night with the assistance of a dark lantern, much 

 in the same way as in India our cultivators in many parts of the 

 country kill deer, or as poachers in Wales spear Salmon. 



To cover their movements and to lull the suspicions of the 

 Bustards, the cattlemen carry on their wrists a cattle bell or cencerro, 

 to which the Bustards are accustomed and of which they have no 

 fear. 



M any hens and young birds are also killed by so-called sportsmen 

 during the breeding season, when the hens sit close and the young 

 are not sufficiently advanced to seek safety in flight. 



The two legitimate means of obtaining this grand game-bird are 

 by driving and — a less sporting method — by working them in a 

 grain cart as one shoots Black-buck in India. The latter method 

 requires no description, for it is well known to most sportsmen in 

 India, but the driving of Bustard requires so much special care and 

 so much local knowledge that I again indent on Messrs. Chapman 

 and Buck for their most interesting account of such a drive : — 



" The district having been selected, it is ad visible to send out 

 the night before a trustworthy scout who will sleep at the cortijo 

 and be abroad with the dawn in order to locate precisely the 

 various bandaias, or troops of bustard, in the neighbourhood. 

 The shooting party (three or four guns for choice, but in no 

 case to exceed six) follow in the morning — riding, as a rule, to 

 the rendezvous." 



" Arrived at the cortijo, the scout brings in his report, and at 

 once guns and drivers, all mounted, proceed towards the nearest 

 ol the marked handadas .... The drivers should number 



