3V2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



A. H. Mosse writes : — " The big Bustard is veiy slow in rising and 

 has to take 4 or 5 steps with outstretched wings before he succeeds 

 in getting up into the air.'' Capt. 0. Brownlow, on the other 

 hand, writes " before rising from the ground, they ran only a few 

 steps and rose with apparent ease." When once flushed, it flies well 

 and strongly, though with but slow beats of the wing, and at a 

 very much faster rate than those who have not shot at it would 

 give it credit for. Those who have shot these fine birds soon find, 

 however, that they fly quite as fast as smaller birds who appear to 

 go at twice the pace and it is necessary to shoot well forward to 

 bring them down. 



In addition to the moaning call and the bark or bellow described 

 by Jerdon, Capt. C. Brownlow mentions a third sound made by 

 these birds. He writes to me about this as follows : — " I then saw 

 a flock of six or seven feeding near a small village and managed to 

 get within some 30 yards or so before they became alarmed and 

 flew ofi*. Whilst moving about before they were disturbed they 

 kept up a sort of cackle." 



The Bustard is a difficult bird to circumvent, affording as good 

 sport as any game bird known, and calling forth all the cunning 

 and patience of the sportsman. 



Of course, there are occasions on which the bird's natural 

 cuteness fails to keep it in its ordinary advantageous position in the 

 open and the quantity of food obtainable in high crops sometimes 

 entices it to its doom. Thus, as Mr. J. E. James records in "Game 

 Birds," " the largest bag I ever knew was made near Malegaon, 

 in the Nasik District, when an officer came upon a flock feeding in 

 a field of Jowari which was above their heads. He walked them 

 up and shot eight of them as they rose, like so many partridges." 



So, also, Capt. Mosse remarks : "Occasionally the Indian Bustard 

 may, I believe, be put up out of crops like a quail and bagged at 

 short range. But my knowledge of him is confined to the open 

 plains where he is ordinarily met with in these parts. He .may be 

 shot in two ways. First by stalking him with a small bore rifle^ 

 though stalking is hardly the correct term, owing to the absence 

 of cover, which necessitates a perfectly open approach. If this be 

 conducted with an air of indifference and by an indirect advance, 



