THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



47 



plumage and tail, pale olive brown ; and the wings black and grey 

 with white tips, The female is considerably smaller than the male 

 and has the white of the neck more or less mottled with olive brown. 

 The young males resemble the females in colour. 



This Bustard is found throughout a considerable part of India, but 

 it is nowhere very plentiful, and it is said to be growing yearly more 

 scarce. It is most common in the west and is unknown in Bengal or 

 Behar, or on the Malabar Coast. It is scarce in Gujerat and I am 

 somewhat lucky in having seen five. These I saw near Liah Tori, a 

 village a few miles from Viramgam which is on the Bombay, Baroda 

 and Central Indian Railway. I was riding along on my camel 

 through a cotton field, when two great birds got up almost under the 

 camel's feet, and after flying 150 yards or so settled down again in the 

 cotton, their long white necks and the greater part of their bodies 

 showing above the plants. I did not know at the time what they 

 were, and when I afterwards found out I received something of a 

 shock. I had always pictured the Bustard to myself as one of the 

 handsomest of birds, and one that ran with great speed and graceful- 

 ness, and now I discovered what I ought to have known before, namely, 

 that Bustards are no runners. I found moreover that this species of 

 Bustard was somewhat clumsy in form, and was to my mind plain in 

 colour, the white neck, though characterized by Dr. Jerdon as ' mag- 

 nificent,' being in reality by no means becoming. I did not altogether 

 believe my shikari when he told me these birds were game birds, so 

 we did not secure any, though I am pretty sure we might have done 

 so with a little trouble, as the ground was well adapted for a drive. 

 As it was, as soon as I saw they had settled, I got off my camel, took 

 my gun and went after them. I started to walk as though I meant to 

 walk past them, just in the same manner as one approaches plover or 

 sandgrouse, but as they squatted almost as soon as I started, I felt 

 sure I should get a shot, and made straight towards them. It was 

 most curious to see how completely they disappeared into the cotton 

 plants, and what was still more strange, they must have managed to 

 move along in a crouching attitude, for when I arrived at about 40 

 yards from the place where they disappeared, and made quite sure of a 

 shot they suddenly rose about 30 yards further off than I expected 

 them, and settled again about 250 yards further on. I thought I must 

 have made a mistake about the place where they had squatted but 

 when a second attempt to approach them had resulted in precisely the 



