l8 THE HOUBARA.
who says he got the African form in Armenia, preserved no
specimens, and Tristram, who found it common in the Jordan
valley, fancied that the two birds were identical, and also procured
no specimens. In some of the islands of the Persian
Gulf, our species has been obtained ; indeed, a few pairs are
supposed to have bred in an island near Fau a few years ago;
probably both in Armenia and in the eastern portions of
Arabia it is our bird that occurs.
I H A V E never known the Houbara to be shot earlier in India
than the 27th of August, and the usual time for their appearance
in the Sirsa district, for instance, is (earlier or later according
to season) during the first fortnight in September.
They leave again towards the close of March, or early in
April, according as the hot weather closes in earlier or later, and
quite in the extreme north-west I have heard of a straggler
being shot on the 28th April. It is clearly the heat that drives
them away, and just before they leave, I have noticed that during
the hottest part of the day they lie like stones and will
barely run or fly.
Although pairs, and even single birds, are not unfrequently
met with, the Houbara with us is eminently gregarious, and
I have put up as many as twenty in a single flight.
Some sportsmen think that females greatly preponderate,
and this may be so in particular parties, but I have never noticed
it ; and I sec that in the Sirsa district, between the 16th
and the 22nd November 1867, I killed 83 birds, 47 of which
were males, which, even allowing for the males getting the preference
when a choice occurs, as being the finest and largest
birds, does not look like any preponderance of females.
I have never heard this bird utter any sound, either when
feeding undisturbed, or when suddenly flushed, or when
wounded and seized, or about to be seized, by man or dog.
Possibly during the breeding season the males have some
call.
By preference, the Houbara affects the nearly level, though
slightly undulating, sandy semi-desert plains, which constitute
so important a feature in the physical geography of Western
India. Plains, semi-desert indeed, but yet affording in places
thin patches, in places a continuous sea, of low scrubby cover,
in which the dwarf Zizyphus, (the Ber), the Lana (Anabasis
multiflord), the Booee (Airua bovii), various Salsolas, stunted
Acacia bushes, and odorous tufts of lemon grass are conspicuous.
Here the Houbara trots about early and late, squatting under
the shade of some bush, during the sunniest hours of the day,
feeding very largely on the small fruit of the Ber, or the berries
of the Grcwia, or the young shoots of the lemon grass, and
other herbs ; now picking up an ant or two, now a grasshopper
T H E H O U B A R A. 19
or beetle, and now a tiny land-shell or stone, but living chiefly
as a vegetarian, and never with us, to judge from the hundreds
I have examined, feeding on lizards, snakes, and the like, as the
Great Bustard certainly does, and the African Houbara is said
to do.
The Houbara greatly prefers running to flying, and when
the weather is not too hot, will make its way through the
labyrinth of little bushes which constitute its home at a really
surprising pace. So long as the cover is low, its neck and body
are held as low as possible, but as soon as it gets where it
thinks it cannot be seen, it pulls up, and raising its head as
high as possible, takes a good look at its pursuers. Not unfrequently
it then concludes to squat, and though you may have
been, unobserved, watching it carefully, whilst it 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
looking 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 districts
where they arc 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 Antelope or
Ravine-deer, Quail, Partridges, and, on rare occasions, a Great
Bustard also, it is not bad fun, though rather monotonous, like
the scenery that surrounds one.
Taking the camel at a long, easy, six-miles-an-hour trot,
across one of those vast wildernesses they affect, you will
not be long before, raised high up as you are on camelback,
you catch sight of one or more Houbara feeding amongst
the bushes. To them camels have no evil import; everybody
uses them; none but the veriest pauper walks, every one rides,
and rides camels. The peasant going out to plough his field
rides on one camel and puts his plough on the other, which, with
its nose-string fastened to the tail of the one he rides, trots
along complacently behind. When, therefore, the Houbara see
you coming along on a camel, they only move a little aside, so as
to be out of your line of march, and you at once begin to describe
a large spiral round them, so that, while appearing always
to be passing away from them, you are really always closing
in on them. Sometimes, if the time be early or late, or if
the day be cold or cloudy, long before you are within shot, they
start off running, and if you press them further, ultimately take
wing, flying heavily, and soon re-alighting and running on, never,
so far as I have seen, taking the long flights that the Great
Bustard does, and never fluttering and skylarking in the air