BUSTARD. 
nearly seven quarts of water. With this, it 
is probable, they supply the hens when sitting, 
and the young till they are able to fly. 
Like other birds of the poultry kind, Bus- 
tards change their mates at the season of in- 
cubation, which is about the latter end of 
summer. If the number of males and females 
be equal, they separate in pairs ; but, should 
the males prove most numerous, they fight till 
reduced to an equality. They build their nests 
on the ground, by scraping holes in the earth, 
and sometimes line them with a little straw or 
grass. The hen lays only two eggs, w^hich 
are not so large as those of a goose ; they are 
of a pale olive brown, sprinkled with small 
dark spots. They are about five weeks in 
hatching ; and the young ones run about the 
moment they are emancipated from their shells. 
Bustards generally live about fifteen years ; 
but they cannot be propagated in a domestic 
state, as it is impossible to supply them with a 
sufficiency of that food in which they princi- 
pally delight. 
