The Great Bustard. 49 



darting step they run too and fro, picking up one grasshopper after another with 

 unerring aim, and so intent on their feeding that the best chance of the day is 

 then offered to their pursuer, for their greed for the moment lessens their caution 

 and their vigilance is relaxed"; but he adds that even under these circumstances 

 a man on foot has no chance of coming near them. His approach is observed 

 from afar, and after a moment of doubt, a couple of quick steps and a spring, and 

 the strong wings of every bird flap in slowly rising motion. 



Lord Lilford describes the birds as virtually omnivorous, hardly any green 

 thing coming amiss to them, and besides vegetables of all sorts, and insects, they 

 will eat frogs, lizards, snails, earth-worms, mice, and young birds. 



The male bird has a singular pouch which, commencing under the tongue, 

 runs down the front of the neck, thus when distended is capable of holding three 

 or four quarts. It is not always to be found, and its presence or absence has 

 been a subject of great discussion, some authors asserting and others denying its 

 existence, but the latest examinations prove that such a pouch does exist, and the 

 late Mr. Garrod, the Prosector to the Zoological Society, who had opportunities of 

 dissecting specimens, sums up the evidence as follows : — " From the facts at 

 present known regarding this subject, it may be concluded that a large sublingual 

 air-pouch, which runs down the anterior portion of the neck, is present in the 

 adult of Otis tarda, and some other species of Bustards, during the breeding 

 season ; that in young birds this pouch is not developed, and that during the 

 non-breeding-time this pouch maj^, and perhaps always does, contract so consider- 

 ably as to become insignificant." 



The nesting of the Bustard is very simple, it is merely a hollow scraped in 

 the ground. The eggs are yellowish-brown, and are nearly three inches in length. 

 Incubation is said to last four weeks, in Spain usually commencing in the last 

 week of April. Shortly after the males disappear, hiding in the vast stretches 

 of corn, and awaiting their annual moult. This is a severe operation, as the flight 

 feathers, both primary and secondary, are shed almost simultaneously, and the 

 birds, incapable of flight, seek the closest seclusion, giving rise to the idea that 

 they have migrated, when they are only hiding in the dense vegetation. There 

 is no doubt, however, that the males, after the females are sitting, desert .their 

 mates and associate in unisexual packs. 



Doubt is cast upon the old statement, which has frequently appeared in print, 

 that the Bustard was formerly coursed with grey-hounds on Salisbury Plain and 

 other similar localities. If this sport ever were practised it must have been 

 during the short moulting season, when the birds were incapable of flight, but 

 even at that time the bird possesses great speed of foot, and is not worthy of the 



Vo., V. H 



