764 
BIRD-LIFE. 
Tlie Great Bustard feeds on plants, and insects of all 
kinds, buds, tender leaves and stalks, seeds, fruits, 
grasses, grain, clover leaves, cabbages and turnips, are 
all eaten with avidity; in summer it devours a great deal 
of green food, and in winter this is preferred to all other 
kind of nourishment. In the last-mentioned season it 
grazes in the rape-fields from seven in the morning till 
mid-day, when it retires to digest its breakfast on some 
favourably-situated ploughed field, returning, however, 
again to the rape-fields, where it remains till the evening, 
when it retires to roost, often some two miles off.* The 
Bustard can only be induced to quit a good feeding-place 
after repeatedly being disturbed, though it will retire for 
several days on the first occasion. This bird grazes like 
the Goose, only using its feet in the winter to scrape 
away the snow; it is, however, unable to accomplish this 
when the upper crust is frozen over. The Bustard is at 
all times given to swallowing a considerable number of 
small quartz-stones, even pieces of metal and lost coins, 
so as to facilitate digestion; it slakes its thirst probably 
with dew, inasmuch as it is never seen in the neighbour¬ 
hood of open water-holes. The Bustard cleans its feathers 
with dust, scratching and basking in the same manner as 
fowls do. 
In the month of February the conduct of Bustards 
changes in a striking manner. Their hitherto social 
habits of life become altered, they are seized with an 
irresistible restlessness, an impulse seems to force them 
to erratic wanderings. The males begin to think of 
seeking out partners, and fight at times with their rivals. 
The large flocks become daily more and more broken up 
and dispersed; smaller ones are formed,—and one flies 
* Equivalent to four English miles.— W. J\ 
