Mr. Aubyn Trrvor-Battye,



190



This guttural laugh of the male is one of the only three

sounds I have heard these Bustards’ make. Another is the short

bark by which both sexes express fear and possibly also anger.

The male also has a call. George Taylor who feeds them has

•often heard it, I have only heard it once or twice. It is a difficult

sound to describe, but it is something like the whine of a dog,

■only fuller, more musical, and curiously ventriloquistic. When

Taylor first heard it he thought it was made by one of the grey¬

hounds some distance away. It is only uttered once and always

under the following conditions. When Taylor has fed the birds

he comes out by the gate, along the path (see diagram) on his

way to the food hut. The bird stands with lowered head and

straight neck, and watches him round, and when he has almost

reached the hut calls after him—just the one call. If faced—if

Taylor looks round at him—he will not call. The bird never

•calls after me, nor will he call if I go down and walk back with

Taylor.*


Others have kept these birds longer, and know more about

them than I ; but as every little helps perhaps I may here

give some conclusions I have formed about Great Bustards in

■captivity.


I think their enclosure should contain as great a variety as

possible of ground. They are specially fond of getting up on to

mounds and hillocks, no doubt for sentry purposes. When

riding along in the evening in Spain you will see the Bustards

scattered all over the higher land. This is not to say that you never

see one in a hollow, you do exceptionally, but they like to keep

their look out from high points ; broken ground, then, makes their

•captivity so much more interesting. When they are playing they

like to run up and down a bank, and round the corners and ends

of banks. They are fond of dusting in the banks and making holes

there in which they can squat : and of course the radiated heat

from a bank is very good for them. I do not think that if kept

in an ordinary flat paddock they would be in such good spirits.



* A remark made in a letter by Mr. St. Quintin is interesting- as bearing upon this.

He says “ Youug'Bustards ‘whine’ when hungry, or if one gets over the fence, and is

separated from its fellows. I expect the hen parent can find her youug by this cry in the

standing corn, etc.” A. X-B.



