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Show 1880.] SIR W. ELLIOT ON THE INDIAN BUSTARD. 487 Whilst so engaged I heard the same sounds coming from another cock at a greater distance and many birds (generally so solitary and living so far apart) were seen on the wing ; and afterwards I often heard the call at the same season, about the beginning of the cold weather (October to December). On one occasion, somewhat later, in a different part of the country, south of the Kistna, in the month of February, I raised a hen sitting on her nest, which was a very simple affair, consisting of a little dry grass lying on the ground among some low bushes ; in it were two eggs which I carried away and brought home in 1834. They met with rough usage during my second absence in India: one was broken to pieces, and the other much damaged, but m y daughter has put it together and it is here on the table. These were of an olive-green colour, spotted and blotched with brown. Probably the hen lays more eggs, for I have seen three and even four well-grown young birds feeding together in company with the old one. They shift their ground according to the season, frequenting the high grassy downs (or mais) during the rainy and cold weather, then coming down towards the cultivation, and in the dry season drawing towards the neighbourhood of streams and rivers. Their food consists of insects, berries, grain, &c. In the cold season the crops of those I examined contained Grylli, beetles of all kinds (Cetonidae, Elateridae, Buprestidae, Carabidae), frequently the spongy nidus of the mantis, caterpillars, Julidae, Scolopendridae, & c , and on one occasion I found an unbroken egg of a Quail (Coturnix textilis); with these were seeds, berries of low-growing shrubs, stones and gravel. On the cultivated land they devour quantities of the wild gourd (the kunker of the natives), so abundant on the black cotton soil ; and when the crops ripen they have recourse to the various kinds of millet, bolting the whole head often entire, and to the many sorts of pulse cultivated as a second crop. Thus it appears few things come amiss to them. Their flight is slow, and heavy, with a regular motion of the wings. When suddenly disturbed they utter a hoarse note, something like kok kok, and fly far, but otherwise they are silent except at the breeding- season. I have heard of instances in which they have been ridden down by a well-mounted horseman where there was space enough1. Falconers sometimes try to kill them with the Peregrine; but I always found that the Bhyree was no match for the Bustard, which lighted as soon as the Falcon stooped and attacked it so courageously that it would not repeat the assault. So rarely has the pursuit been successful that the Nawab of Banganapiliny in Cuddapah conferred a village Inarn (or free tenure) on a falconer who achieved the feat. These Bustards vary greatly in size, the hens weighing from 10 to 20 lbs., the cocks from 25 to 35 lbs. Col. Mansfield has got them as high as 40 lbs. I examined the gular pouch of a cock which weighed 32 lbs.; and, to gauge its capacity, secured it with a ligature at the bottom and filled it with water from the gape by means of a common 1 In the 'Bengal Sporting Magazine' for 1857 there is an account of this having been accomplished by a party of officers at Loodianah. |