XV 
AN UNCAGED ZOO 
*83 
The great black and white bustard [Eupodotis kori), 
when disturbed, has a curious way of hying around in 
concentric circles. When alarmed l)ustards rise clumsily 
on the wing and make a wide circuit before alighting, 
but if followed up, the birds make a narrower circuit 
and so on until they finally alight near the spot from 
which they were originally disturbed. Taking advan¬ 
tage of this fact, we were able, without much trouble, 
to secure some of these large birds for our larder. 
When roasted the fiesh of a bustard is as delectable as 
that of a turkey. These large birds weigh more than 
twenty pounds, and examples have been recorded which 
weighed twenty-five pounds. Such birds will have an 
expanse of wing measuring eight feet in width. There 
is a smaller species of bustard which we obtained at 
Njaro. 
I was very interested in the bustard because two 
species formerly lived in England. The Great Bustard 
{Otis tarda) only became extinct in Norfolk al)out 1838, 
The smaller bustard {Otis tetrax) occasionally straggles 
to our shores. The museum at Salisbury contains two 
stuffed specimens of the Great Bustard, said to be the 
last examples of this bird shot on Salisbury Plain. 
When the gizzards were opened they contained, among 
other stones, some Hint arrow heads. 
I have seen the Great Bustard stalking about the 
fields in the south-west of Spain, near Utrera. These 
birds eat berries, seed, larvae, molluscs, frogs, young 
corn, and juicy plants. A live frog swallowed by a 
bustard must have an uncomfortable time among the 
stones in this bird’s gizzard. Imagine the agony of 
being slowly ground to death in a gizzard-mill. 
The Bee-eaters, with their wonderful coloration, 
graceful forms, and activity, could not fail to attract 
the attention of the least observant. It was delightful 
to watch one sitting on the twigs of a leafiess tree, and 
then see it suddenly dart in the air and snap an insect 
on the wing, like a flycatcher, and return to the bush 
