120 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 



events in the heat of the day, concealed in the grass, but not for 

 the purpose of eating the seeds of the Roussa grass, as the writer 

 above alluded to imagines, rather for the large grasshoppers that 

 abound so there, and which fly against you at every few steps 

 you take. During the cold weather the Bustard frequently feeds, 

 and rests during the day likewise, in wheat fields. When the 

 grass and corn is all cut, and the bare plains no longer afford food 

 to the Bustard, it will be found along the banks of rivers where 

 there is long grass mixed with bushes, or the edges of large tanks, 

 or low jungle where there is moderately high grass, or it wanders 

 to some district where there is more grass, for though they do not 

 migrate, yet Bustards change their ground much according to the 

 season, and the supply of grasshoppers and other insects. The 

 lien birds, remarks the writer quoted above, generally congregate 

 together during the rains, are very timid, and frequently, when a 

 sportsman is pursuing a single one, she will attempt to seek safety, 

 fatally for herself, in some large bush, particularly if the gunner 

 turn aside his head, and affect not to see her at the moment of 

 hiding. The cock-birds, at this season, feed a mile or so apart 

 from the hens, and stretching their magnificent white necks, stride 

 along most pompously. Besides grasshoppers, which may be said 

 to be their favorite food, the Bustard will eat any other large 

 insect, more especially Mylabris, or blistering beetle, so 

 abundant during the rains ; the large Buprestis, Scarabcel, cater- 

 pillars, &c, also lizards, centipedes, small snakes, &c. Mr. Elliot 

 found a Quail's egg entire in the stomach of one, and they will 

 often swallow pebbles or any glittering object that attracts them. 

 I took several portions of a brass ornament, the size of a No. 16 

 bullet, out of the stomach of one Bustard. In default of insect 

 food, it will eat fruit of various kinds, especially the fruit of the 

 Byr (Zizyphus jujuba) and Caronda (Carissa carandas) ; grain, 

 and other seeds and vegetable shoots. 



The Bustard is polygamous, and at the breeding season, which 

 varies very greatly according to the district, from October to 

 March, the male struts about on some eminence, puffing out the 

 feathers of his neck and throat, expanding his tail, and ruffling 

 his wings, uttering now and then a low deep moaning call heard a 



