126 Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
thinks it cannot be seen, it pulls up, and, raising its head as 
high as possible, takes a good look at its pursuers. Not un- 
frequently it then concludes to squat, and though you may 
have been, unobserved, watching it carefully, whilst U was only 
watching others of the party coming from an opposite direction, 
it becomes absolutely invisible the moment it settles down at 
the foot of a bush or stone. Once it has thus settled, especially 
if it is hot and about noon, you may walk past it within ten 
yards without flushing it, if you walk carelessly and keep look- 
ing in another direction. 
“ But it is weary work trudging on foot, under an Indian 
sun, after birds that run as these can and will, and in the dis- 
tricts where they are plentiful, people always either hawk them 
or shoot them from camels. 
“Off a camel, a large bag is easily made, and as, whilst 
after these Bustards, you get from time to time shots at Ante- 
lope or Ravine-Deer, Quail, Partridges, and, on rare occasions, 
a Great Bustard also, it is not bad fun, though rather monoto- 
nous, like the scenery that surrounds one. 
“ In some parts of the country, the Houbara greatly affect 
fields of mustard and other crops yielding the oil-seeds of com- 
merce, of which there is a vast variety, known by half a dozen 
different names, in almost every province. 
“ I have occasionally seen them in wheat, barley, and other 
grain fields, but only when these were young and tender.” 
Nest. — None. 
jjggg. — Two or three in number ; clay-brown or olive-brown 
in colour, with faint underlying spots and blotches of purplish- 
grey, the overlying spots being dark brown and generally some- 
what longitudinal in shape. A.xis, 2'2-2'55 inches; diam., 
I '6- 1 8. 
THE THICK-KNEES. SUB-ORDER (EDICNEMI. 
The Thick-knees, or Stone-Curlews, form an intermediate 
group between the Bustards and the Plovers, and they have 
been called before now Thick-kneed Bustards, as well as 
Norfolk “ Plovers.” Stone-“ Curlew ” is not a good name for 
these birds, as they have little to do with the True Curlews 
