THE BUSTARD 109 



Lord Lilford, one of our greatest authorities on birds, 

 tells us that "in February flocks of Bustards, varying in 

 number from eight or ten to sixty or more, are to be seen 

 on all the pasture and corn-lands around Seville, especially 

 on the right of the Guadalquivir, a few miles above that 

 city, a country of rolling down-land, for the most part 

 under cultivation." 



Here in the young green wheat the Bustard lays her 

 eggs, and brings up her two or three chicks. At first 

 there is little or no shelter from the eyes of their enemies, 

 but later on the tall yellow stalks hide the whole family 

 most effectually. 



For the corn-lands of Southern Spain are immense in 

 their extent, and passing feet are few. So a Bustard's 

 life in that sunny land must be rather a pleasant one, 

 except when drought comes to lessen his food-supply. 

 Here are some of the things he loves : grasshoppers and 

 locusts, field-mice and lizards, earthworms, beetles, and 

 snails, and, when he can find them, frogs. And for 

 vegetable food he helps himself to the farmer's young 

 corn, clover, and the leaves of vetches and other crops. 



Eastward, on the great dreary steppes of Southern 

 Russia, the Bustard finds a very different but equally 

 welcome home. None but a hardy bird would venture to 

 nest in the open, on those desolate plains, swept by the 

 most bitter of winds. The four winter months do indeed 

 see the greater number fly away to a warmer, kindlier land, 

 but large flocks stay on, as if a Russian winter was to 

 them not so very terrible a thing to face. 



Those that stay usually keep together in companies, 

 often of eighty or a hundred. But these are made up of 

 many groups, and each group is as separate as are the 

 regiments in an army. Indeed, the assembling seems to be 



