THE GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD. 9 



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 accord- 

 ing to the season and the supply of grasshoppers and other 

 insects. The hen 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 favourite 

 food, the Bustard will eat any other large insect, more especi- 

 ally Mylabris, or blistering beetle, so abundant during the 

 rains ; the large Buprestis, Scarabcei, caterpillars, &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 

 Ber (Zizyphns 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 great way off. 



" The Bustard has another call, heard not unfrequently, com- 

 pared by some to a bark or a bellow ; chiefly heard, however, 

 when the bird is alarmed. This is compared by the natives to 

 the word hook, hence the name of hookna, by which it is 

 known to the villagers about Gwalior. 



" When flushed, it generally takes a long flight, sometimes 

 extending to three or four miles, with a steady, continued 

 flapping of its wings, at no great height above the ground ; 

 and I never found that it had any difficulty in rising, not 

 even requiring to run one step, as I have many times had 

 occasion to observe when flushing them in long grass or 

 wheat fields. On the open bare plains, it will sometimes run a 

 step or two before mounting into the air. A writer in the 

 Bengal Sporting Magazine asserts that he has known the Bustard 

 ridden down, and that after two or three flights it is so exhaust- 

 ed as to allow of its capture. I imagine that a healthy bird 

 would tire out the best horse and rider before giving in." 



The way in which the male expands the throat at times 

 during the breeding season is most extraordinary. Twice I 



