MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
639 
enjoy excellent health and are very tame. Both hen birds 
accidently injured themselves last year from being suddenly 
frightened ; the one breaking a toe and the other dislocating the 
metacarpal joint of a wing, but in the case of both recovery 
has resulted. When handling Bustards one has to be careful, 
because the feathers come out very easily, and there is a good 
deal of powdery down between the feathers. My birds have 
got quite accustomed to a pony feeding near them and a bulldog 
that I keep, though the male bird will try to attack the latter if 
he ventures too near the wire-work of their run. Strange to 
say, a ladder set up near them still alarms them to such an 
extent that they have to be shut up when one is being used. 
After the injuries they had received last year I hardly 
expected that either of the hens would attempt egg-laying, but 
on the 29th June I noticed that the bird that had injured her 
toe was uneasy and inclined to quarrel with the other hen. 
She was also seen scratching the ground — a habit I had never 
previously observed in the case of either of them. In the 
evening an egg had been dropped in the run, and on the 
morning of July 1st, I found another egg in the shelter-house. 
As the bird showed no signs of brooding I placed the eggs 
under a Buff Orpington hen, which sat steadily for twenty-eight 
days. At the end of this time I found that the first-layed egg 
was addled, so I removed both. One egg is now in the Norwich 
Castle Museum ; the other I sent to Mr. Scott Bayfield, who 
gave it to the Yarmouth Museum. 
The male bird begins to show oft about the end of March — 
27th March, 1910, 9th April, 1911, 16th March, 1912, being the 
dates I have observed him the last three years. It is very amusing 
to watch him when he commences his performance ; his tail 
feathers are thrown over his back, his wings inverted, and his 
head and neck drawn back between his wings. When inflating 
his gular pouch he seems to gulp in the air with a wheezing 
sound, his moustachial plumes stand out at right angles and he 
stamps about the ground with his feet. The hens are apparently 
unconcerned at all this, and the show is soon over, though it is 
repeated at short intervals, sometimes a day or two inter- 
