THE GREAT BUSTARD. 
761 
water-bag: this is filled .’with air, and so serves to 
distend the neck; possibly, also, to strengthen the voice, 
when the bird, inflamed with amorous desire, wishes to 
declare his passion. 
With us, the Great Bustard inhabits broad, open, 
arable plains, which render approach very difficult. In 
Africa, as we have before stated, Bustards are found on 
extensive steppes, where they are easily hidden in the 
grass, which is as high as a man. In these localities one 
may often hear their peculiar cry in the forenoon, without 
being able to put up a single bird. They have regular 
paths in the grass, through which they beat a nimble 
retreat; they act with us in much the same manner 
when the grain crops are high enough to form a secure 
hiding-place. Large fields of rape-seed, which stand out 
the winter, are favourite resorts of theirs, from the end of 
autumn until the early spring. They are rarely found 
in swampy or mountainous districts, or in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of villages; they carefully avoid, indeed, every 
row of trees, each bush, and every well-known dell or 
or hollow. They only frequent open places, where the 
flatness of the land enables them to keep a good 
look out. It is only in rainy weather, when the corn is 
wet, that they find themselves obliged to roam the fields, 
broad meadows, and ploughed land; and even then they 
immediately make for their hiding-covert at the most 
distant approach of danger. 
It is this excessive caution, so peculiar to the Bustard, 
which explains much of its conduct that appears singular : 
for instance, it selects the most remote plains as roosting 
places, never seeking them before twilight has set in, and 
leaving them again before the gray of the morning: 
these places may be recognized by the droppings of the 
