Vol. MN 3} 9.] Note on the Houbara or Bastard Bustard. 451 
N.S. 
resulting from a crop freshly replete with juicy leaves. Its real 
sleeping camel, it is perfectly invisible. ‘Nature seems to have 
fo 
Pathans the soubriquet of ‘thief’—for to a Pathan mind the 
word thief suggests first an idea of stealth and cunning, and 
not dishonesty. Once, near dusk, on an open flat plain destitute of 
even a blade of dry grass, I flew a pregrine at an houbara that 
rose at some distance. I galloped after the peregrine to a spot 
Pp oes 
aside a little and squat. If there is a nullah near, it will to a 
certainty make for its edge. When pressed by a hawk it will fly 
in large circles, being loth to leave the vicinity of its comrades. 
If, however, after being chased to a distance, it baffles the hawk 
and horsemen, owing to the broken nature of the country, it will 
squat only for a certain time, and will then make its way back to 
its comrades. Lie oes 
hough possessed of considerable powers of flight, it only 
takes to the wing when fo 
and leaving it about 8 a.m. in the morning. A party of six or 
eight of us once sat down on an emb i 
for one that was known to visit that particular small and solitary 
mustard patch, the object being to get an easy flight for a young 
fesse pe te eh el 
: ing houbara, 
1 Blanford says that only a trained eye can detect a squatting : 
Even a trained eye cannot detect it—unless of course the bird eth - rd 
quite a common thing for a chased houbara to dodge behind vette an : i 
and for the falcon to settle within four or five feet and be baffled, even 
ground. 
