8 RUFFED 15USTARD, 



to meet with an enemy. In the spring the males have 

 grand battles with each other for the possession of 

 the females, asserting and maintaining their right to 

 have a plurality of wives, in which combats the older 

 birds are generally victorious. 



The females scrape a hole in the sand, in which 

 Mr. Tristram says they lay three, sometimes only two, 

 eggs. They will desert the nest if it is disturbed 

 during incubation.- Degland and some other writers 

 give five as the maximum number of eggs. The young 

 when born are covered with down, and immediately, 

 like other gallinaceous birds, follow their mother in 

 search of food. 



The Bustard is both granivorous and insectivorous. 

 According to some authors they will feed also upon 

 frogs, toads, and lizards ; and M. Jules Verreaux 

 informs us that in Africa he has often seen them kill 

 and eat snakes. In the combat they principally make 

 use of their wings, killing their prey by violent blows. 



The male has the top of the head white, the feathers 

 being prolonged into a crest, which is bordered on 

 each side by elongated feathers of a russet brown, 

 spotted with black. Sides of the head, throat, and 

 upper part of the neck, and nape, grey, the last being 

 partly hidden by the elongated feathers of the crest. 

 From the back of the neck extends on each side long 

 stiff feathers, above black, below white, forming a ruff. 

 The rest of the upper parts, namely, scapularies, back, 

 upper wing and tail coverts, and upper tail feathers, 

 russet brown, barred and crossed with darker brown; 

 the tints varying from light brown on the back to 

 greyish brown on the shoulders and lower part of the 

 wing coverts, and to dark russet on the upper tail 

 feathers; primaries, the first four white, with about 



