Some Great Bustards.



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My impression is that if these birds are to breed it is

better that they should not be kept in a very large place. The

object is to get them absolutely indifferent not only to men, but to

dogs, and other possible visitors. At the same time the enclo¬

sure should not be so small that they would ever feel themselves

» cornered. Perhaps 50 yards x 25 yards is a good size for a Great

j Bustard enclosure.


About food. My own birds are fed morning and evening.

The staple of their food is Spratt’s Poultry Food (without the oyster

shell) and barley meal. The first is wetted in the morning and

remains in soak till the evening, that it may swell thoroughly,

and not inside the birds. Then the meal is gradually stirred in

till the whole is nearly dry and will, when pressed, just hold

together in pellets. I11 the same way in the evening preparation is

made for the morning meal. This regime is varied by bits

of bread or toast, for birds, like human beings, get tired of always

having the same food. I11 the wild state no doubt Great

Bustards eat a great variety of animal food, such as mice,

locusts, and insects generally. A captive bird denied this will,

as we have seen, on the first opportunity take it ravenously, and

until it has satisfied this want it will scarcely look at fresh

vegetable food ; but, the craving satisfied, it will then as

greedily eat fresh cabbage.


It is orthodox to give them rock salt, and a large block

has always lain on their gravel path. But although constantly

under observation of myself or others, they have never been

seen either to peck at it or even to pick up any of the salted grit

that lies about it.


It is easy enough to keep sun and rain from the food

bowls, but not Sparrows and Starlings, and here I may point to

the gratitude, and I think profit, that awaits the inventor of such

an apparatus. I have little doubt that with patience Great

Bustards could be induced to feed from a modified form of the

ordinary trap-door pheasant-feeder, only of course these birds

,^w©uld not step up on to a ledge. The lever must be set in motion

from a good large platform on a level with the ground, and

depressing into a hollow.


Few birds become, under favourable.conditions tamer than



