for this bird being two pounds heavier than any I shot afterwards.
The largest bird, from tip to tip of wing, measured
7 feet 8 inches; this bird weighed 26 lbs. The 28 lbs. bird
measured but 7 feet 1 inch.*
“ The birds of a year old weigh from 8 to 10 lbs., and are
much the best to eat. I did not shoot a hen.
“ All the birds I shot'had their stomachs perfectly
crammed with barley, both stalks and ears, the 'leaves ,pf- a
large-leaved green weed, and a kind of black beetle'. The
pouch is surrounded by a layer of-fat-fully an inch thick.
I may add that the Bustards when flushed generally'fly two
miles Or more, sometimes at least a hundred yards high.
They never try to r u n o n e that I had winged -making the
most awkward attempt possible to get ;away -from me, and
though a young bird,- showing much more disposition gjjjj;
fight than to get away by running.' They fly with a .regular
flap of the wings, and'much faster than they appear to .go.
I cannot imagine greyhounds being able to catch. Bustards,
though there seems to be gopd authority: for believing- they
did.”
To Italy and to the -islands of the Mediterranean the Great
Bustard is merely a straggler; but, in-Greece it is not, uncommon,
and on the plains of the Danubian Provinces* the
South of Russia,and Turkeycit; is . abundant,, crossing #>
Asia Minor inj Sjevere weather ; and on the plains oj|3fol'thern
Syria it is apparently resident.> Its visits’to, Morocco .-are
rare and irregular, but,-Eoche, says that it was .formerly, common
in Algeria, where-it is now rare. _ Passing eastward, it
occurs Jh^iighout, temperate Asia, as far as China, where
Mr. Swinhee obtained i t ; and Japan, whence Messrs. Blakis-
ton and Pryor have,- se*nt- specimens to Mr. Seebohm. ».-pie
bird ‘found in p a s te rn Siberia -has been-distinguished-by
M. Taczanowski,:-undervthe name of l 9 j $ s an^'
described as beiug smaller than the presenttSpecies^but with
longer ^moustaches. Mr. Hume states that a flopk. of five
or six Great Bustards has onee^ straggled ^to Mur dan, .west
of -the Indus (Ibis, 1871, p.’ 40s4 ^ f|
* Males .fe^efbe-en obtained weighing 34 lbs., and even more'. \ .
The Bustard is generally supposed to;h'e polygamous', and'
even those who oppose this belief, cannot deny that in numbers
the females aye far in excess-, of the males, In spring-
the males fight furiously‘for the possession of the females,
and at Elveden a shepherd, prior :to 182.0, saw fwo- cock,
birds so intent; on the. combat that he ran up and killedenne.
with his staff. The males afterwards live apart from the
females,, forming small flocks by themselves. The female,
deposits her' eggs in a inere scratching in the ground: in
April, in Spain ; 4 n May, further, n&Mi complement is
two or three, and the exceptional clutches of four and five,
which have occasionally been found, were probably ^be-pp-.
duce of two females. The eggs are olive-brown in colour,
sparingly and indistinetiy-bMtched with ^ e n i s b , broccblk
brown; they measure about 8 in. by, 2*1 in. Incubation,
lasts rather more than three weeks, and the-young- are soon
able to run and aporete,themselves. | -' ; " * ' | !‘
The birds - feed on green corn, graces, trefoil, and other
vegetables;- they -algo-kill and. eat small mammals,, and,
perhaps, small reptiles. In the summer they ..conceal themselves
in standing corn, generally wheat;or:.rye,, and.latdrifts •
the season in large ;fields;#| high turnips ; they, also -frequent
chalk-pits when they , are partly ©yeygrown/withJ hushes or
rank vegetation. -
In the autumn,^so far as East Anglia was concerned, the
Bustards used tn-disappear for a time, and Mrs -Stevenson
remarks. that., there is' positiyeir^ preqi^ information
apeeting, their .appearau.ee .during the months of %tbber and
November. , |i - , - :
• •The- flesh ;0f the. old male i's^ery coarse eatingrbstithat ■
of a fat hen or^p.|cai,ypUng=’Ibi^n& excellent*. During-Jhe;
great "hea.t^f August and- Smtem p s r ^ p nm ^M ^ 0 sometimes
run down by-hpigemeikand dog® in Spain, as-after-two
orkth-ree 'low flights -they become ex h au sts being at t5iat
season extremely, fa t,.: That they .have been captured under
similar, circumstanpeg^in England ig probable, and indeed
one,case ^recorded by Mr. Lubback;wberedhplgreyhounds-
came. skdenlybhrotfgh a gate* and “p h o n e d ” a Bustard ;