330 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



" But it is weaiy work trudging on foot under an Indian sun 

 after birds that run as these can and will, and in the districts 

 where they are plentiful, people always either hawk them or shoot 

 them from camels. 



" Off a camel a large bag is easily made, and as, whilst after 

 these Bustards, you get from time to time shots at Antelope or 

 Havine-deer, Quail, Partridges, and on rare occasions, a Great 

 Bustard also, it is not bad fun, though rather monotonous, like the 

 scenery that svirrounds one. 



" Taking the camel at a long, easy, six-mil es-an-hour trot, across 

 one of those vast wildernesses they affect, you will not be long 

 before raised high up as you are on camel back, you catch sight 

 of one or more Houbara feeding amongst the bushes. To them 

 camels have no evil import ; everybody uses them ; none but the 

 veriest pauper walks, every one rides, and rides camels. The 

 peasant going out to plough his field rides on one camel 

 and puts his plough on the other, which, with its nose-string 

 fastened to the tail of the one he rides, trots along complacently 

 behind. When, therefore, the Houbara see you coming along 

 on a camel, they only move a little aside, so as to be out of 

 3''our line of march, and you at once begin to describe a large 

 spiral round them, so that, while appearing always to be passing 

 away from them, you are really always closing in on them. Some- 

 times, -if the time be early or late, or if the day be cold or cloudy, 

 long before you are within shot, they start off running, and if you 

 press them further, ultimately take wing, flying heavily, and soon 

 re-alighting and running on, never, so far as I have seen, taking 

 the long flights that the Great Bustard does, and never fluttering 

 and skylarking in the air as do the little ones. Generally, how- 

 ever, if the time be between 10 and 4, and the day bright and 

 warm, as your spiral diminishes the birds disappear suddenly. 

 They have squatted. Still you go on round and round, closing in 

 in each lap, and straining your eyes, usually in vain, to discover 

 their whereabouts ; suddenly perhaps from under the very feet of 

 the camel, up flutters one of the birds, and after a few strides, 

 rises, to fall dead a few yards futher on, as they are easy to hit 

 and easy to kill. Of course, I suppose a trained camel to be used, 



