This species is peculiar to India ; and, though at one time
Mr. Gray identified 0. luzoniensis, Vieill., founded on Sonnerat's
" Paon sauvage de Lucon," with our Indian bird, there is no
reason to suppose that any Bustard occurs in the Philippines, or
that O. luzoniensis, Scopoli's cristata, is other than a South
African species.
T H E BUSTARD is, of course, a bird of comparatively level and
open country, and throughout the provinces and states above
enumerated, it is only in such tracts that it is to be looked for.
In forest-clad or hilly regions, it is not met with.
It is to a great extent migratory, spending one season of the
year in one part of the country, and moving to another to
breed. Thus, for instance, in what used to be called Bhattiana,
now the Sirsa district, it is extremely abundant during the
rainy season, when it breeds : whereas, during the cold season,
it is comparatively scarce.
Although occasionally they may be surprised in a field of
standing giant or bulrush millet, and shot, as I have shot
them right and left, with quail shot, it is generally in comparatively
bare plains or in fields in which the cover is barely above
their knees, that these Bustards are to be seen, and then
it takes a careful stalk to get within a hundred yards of them.
In many parts of the country, the sportsman is quite content
if he gets within 150 yards, and at that distance, with an express
and rifle a front shot, there should be no difficulty in bringing
them to book.
Jerdon gives a very good account of this species, chiefly compiled
from various contributions to our Sporting Reviews.
He s a y s :—
" The Bustard frequents bare open plains, grassy plains
interspersed with low bushes, and occasionally high grass
rumnahs. In the rainy season, large numbers may be seen together
stalking over the undulating plains of the Deccan or Central
India. I have seen flocks of twenty-five or more, and a
writer in the Sporting Review mentions having seen above
thirty on one small hill.
" Towards the close of the rains, and in the cold weather
before the long grass is cut down, the Bustard will often he
found, at all events in the heat of the day, concealed in the
grass, but not for the purpose of eating the seeds of the Roussa
grass as the writer above alluded to imagines, rather for
the large grasshoppers that abound there, and fly against you at
every few steps you take.
" During the cold weather the Bustard frequently feeds, and
rests during the day likewise, in wheat fields. When the grass and
corn are all cut, and the bare plains no longer afford food to the
Bustard, it will be found along the banks of rivers, where there is
long grass mixed with bushes, or the edges of large tanks, or low
jungle, where there is moderately high grass, or it wanders to
some district where there is more grass ; for though they do not
migrate, yet Bustards change their ground much according
to the season and the supply of grasshoppers and other
insects. The hen birds, remarks the writer quoted above,
generally congregate together during the rains, are very timid,
and frequently, when a sportsman is pursuing a single one,
she will attempt to seek safety, fatally for herself, in some large
bush, particularly if the gunner turn aside his head and affect
not to see her at the moment of hiding. The cock birds, at this
season, feed a mile or so apart from the hens, and stretching
their magnificent white necks, stride along most pompously.
" Besides grasshoppers, which may be said to be their favourite
food, the Bustard will eat any other large insect, more especially
Mylabris, or blistering beetle, so abundant during the
rains; the large Bnprestis, Scarabtzi, caterpillars, & c , also lizards,
centipedes, small snakes, &c. Mr. Elliot found a Quail's egg
entire in the stomach of one, and they will often swallow pebbles
or any glittering object that attracts them. I took several
portions of a brass ornament, the size of a No. 16 bullet, out
of the stomach of one Bustard. In default of insect food,
it will eat fruit of various kinds, especially the fruit of the
Ber (Zizyphns jujuba) and Caronda (Carissa carandas), grain
and other seeds and vegetable shoots.
" The Bustard is polygamous, and at the breeding season,
which varies very greatly according to the district, from October
to March, the male struts about on some eminence, puffing out
the feathers of his neck and throat, expanding his tail, and
ruffling his wings, uttering now and then a low, deep, moaning
call heard a great way off.
" The Bustard has another call, heard not unfrequently, compared
by some to a bark or a bellow ; chiefly heard, however,
when the bird is alarmed. This is compared by the natives to
the word hook, hence the name of hookna, by which it is
known to the villagers about Gwalior.
" When flushed, it generally takes a long flight, sometimes
extending to three or four miles, with a steady, continued
flapping of its wings, at no great height above the ground ;
and I never found that it had any difficulty in rising, not
even requiring to run one step, as I have many times had
occasion to observe when flushing them in long grass or
wheat fields. On the open bare plains, it will sometimes run a
step or two before mounting into the air. A writer in the
Bengal Sporting Magazine asserts that he has known the Bustard
ridden down, and that after two or three flights it is so exhausted
as to allow of its capture. I imagine that a healthy bird
would tire out the best horse and rider before giving in."
The way in which the male expands the throat at times
during the breeding season is most extraordinary. Twice I