4 THE LITTLE BUSTARD. 



At times, especially early and late, they are very wary, but 

 at other times, chiefly, I think, when the sun is high and hot, 

 they will lie as close as a Button Quail. 



They are often shot, bags of ten and a dozen couple having 

 been reported ; but it is chiefly as a quarry for Falcons that they 

 are esteemed, and in the neighbourhood of Mardan, hawking 

 them with the Saker or Chargh Falcon used to be a standing 

 amusement. 



They are broad-breasted, compact, strong birds, but withal 

 easily killed, though perhaps less so than Florican. 



It is almost invariably and solely in the mustard fields that 

 they are met with about Mardan. They rise suddenly with a 

 great pat-pat of the wings ; and, though quite invisible until they 

 rise, startle one with the great breadth of pure white they 

 suddenly reveal, the whole of the secondaries and much of 

 the primaries being white. 



Some people consider this bird a delicacy. For my part, I 

 have found the flesh dark and hard, and with a rather unplea- 

 sant flavour. With us, they feed chiefly on the leaves of the 

 Sarson, a kind of mustard, but I have also found remains of 

 insects and land shells in their stomachs ; and in Europe they 

 are said to eat slugs, snails and small reptiles, which, looking to 

 the omnivorous tastes of our Great Indian Bustard, seems 

 probable enough. 



WITH US, they do not breed, though they are said to breed in 

 Beluchistan and AfTghanistan. In Europe, they lay in May, 

 laying three or four eggs, like other Bustards, on the ground, in 

 a small unlined or thinly-lined depression in the soil. Where 

 many eggs (and as many as twelve have been thus met with) 

 are found in the same nest, they are, I believe, the produce of 

 more than one female. 



The eggs are broad ovals, longer than, but not so broad as, 

 those of the Lesser Florican or Likh, which they otherwise 

 closely resemble. They are always glossy, and vary from light 

 olive green, more or less blotched with dark brown, to a uniform 

 dark olive brown. Length, 1*9 to 2' I ; breadth, 1*47 to 1*55. 



I DO not find that the sexes differ materially in size, although 

 the males unquestionably average rather larger and perceptibly 

 heavier. 



The following are dimensions, &c, recorded of Indian speci- 

 mens: — Length, 17 to 19 inches ; expanse, 33.5 to 36; wing, 

 9.5 to io'i ; tail, 4 to 5 ; tarsus, 2*2 to 2*66 ; bill from gape, 1*5 

 to 1 '6. Weight, 1*5 to 2flbs. 



The colours of the soft parts vary a good deal ; the legs 

 and feet are yellow, dusky yellow, greenish yellow, the feet 

 often browner or dingier ; the bill is blackish, greenish black, 



