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surprise it when asleep. It leaves its night-quarters at the first hreak of dawn, and during the 

 hot summer days will often take a siesta during the hottest part of the day, but is then also 

 equally wary and difficult of approach. 



It flies with more ease than one would imagine, considering the size and weight of the bird, 

 and has no difficulty in taking wing, at once springing up into the air without first taking a step 

 or two, and appears to prefer seeking safety in flight rather than by making use of its legs. 

 When it flies it stretches out its neck and legs, and is thus easily distinguishable. 



It feeds chiefly on vegetable substances, grain, seeds, &c, but also eats various sorts of 

 insects. Naumann states that " it eats not only buds and tender shoots, but also coarser portions 

 of various wild plants, such as Valeriana, Fedia olitoria, Leontodon Apargia, Crepis, Hyoseris, 

 Hieracium, tender shoots of the Plantago, young grass shoots, young corn and clover, cabbage, 

 turnip, and rape-leaves, grain of various sorts, both green and ripe, and the ears and pods of 

 various wild plants. Only the young birds feed exclusively on insects, the old ones eating them 

 only in the spring and early summer. It is a great eater, and particular as to its food." 



Early in the spring, according to the mildness of the season, they commence to prepare for 

 the cares of nidification ; and the flocks then by degrees break up. The males fight desperately 

 for the possession of the females, and may at that season of the year be seen strutting about 

 acting not unlike a Turkeycock. Mr. Wolf's excellent plate in Gould's ' Birds of Great Britain ' 

 gives a most faithful representation of the male during the pairing-season. After a short time 

 they divide into pairs, excepting the young birds which are not capable of propagating their 

 species, and who remain together in small companies during the time their elders are engaged 

 with the cares of nidification. The eggs are deposited usually about the latter end of May, the 

 nest being a mere depression scratched in the soil, usually in a grain-field, where the female is 

 well concealed by the growing grain; sometimes the eggs are placed on the bare soil, whereas 

 at others a few dried pieces of herbage or straws are placed as a lining to the nest. The female 

 leaves and returns to her nest with great caution, walking stealthily and bent down to prevent 

 being seen ; and the nest is therefore by no means easy to find. The female alone incubates ; and 

 thirty days is the duration of incubation before the young are hatched. During the time she is 

 sitting she seldom goes far from the nest, only leaving it to obtain food, which she does within 

 as limited a range as possible. 



When the young are hatched they are rather helpless than otherwise, but in the course of 

 a few days are able to run with tolerable ease after their mother, who attends to them with the 

 greatest care and solicitude ; and if a stranger surprises her brood she will feign lameness, and use 

 every device to entice him away, and thus permit the young birds to hide, which they do almost 

 instinctively ; and not until she considers they are out of danger will she seek safety in flight, 

 soon, however, returning to seek her scattered brood again. 



I have on several occasions eaten Bustard, but cannot say that I like it particularly; or 

 perhaps it may not have been sufficiently well cooked. I have found the flavour by no means 

 pleasant, and rather rank. Naumann remarks this also, and says that when alive it has a 

 peculiarly strong smell, which is, to some extent, retained after death. This smell is something 

 like that which pervades the Rook and the Raven ; and many sporting dogs refuse to touch its 



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