There were bustardsand little bustards on the steppes near the Monastery of St. George, and the cliffs presented an appearance which led two or three officers acquainted with Australia to make fruitless searches for gold ore.
Many of the older authors considered the bustards allied to the ostrich, a most mistaken view, their affinity pointing apparently towards the cranes in one direction and the plovers in another.
Bustards constantly rose off the road, and solitary snipe kept up with the carriage, wheeling over it and flying on ahead, or perching on the guide-posts and filling the air with their notes.
The average number of Bustards annually supplied to Chevet, the great game-dealer of the Palais Royal, Paris, about fifty years ago, was six.
Bustards are birds of slow flight, and raise themselves from the ground with difficulty, on account of their size and weight; hence, without doubt, the name tardu was given to them by the Latins.
I lately met a gentleman in Norfolk who well recollected the time when Bustardswere to be met with in that county.
Then the horses are put to, and all with our guns in readiness we drive towards the point at which the bustards were seen.
Bustards we saw, and wild ducks; for the country seemed full of tiny purling streams, which should make agriculture easy and profitable, though these natural advantages are not utilised here.
When within sight of them we make arrangements among ourselves, and then the droshky is driven quietly past the bustards some five hundred yards from them.
With but rare exceptions bright colours are confined to the exposed portions of the plumage, but in some of the Bustards the down is of a bright pink colour.
In former days geese, cranes, kites, ravens and bustards were also flown at.
There are kangaroos in the woods, and several bustards were seen near Cape Keppel.
Birds were rather numerous the most useful of them were ducks of several species, and bustards and one of these last, shot by Mr. Bauer, weighed between ten and twelve pounds, and made us an excellent dinner.
A good chark will sometimes take as many as eight or ten bustards or five or six gazelles in the course of a morning.
I have rarely seen game in such abundance and such variety in one spot; the water swarmed with geese, duck, and teal, the marshy ground with herons and snipe, and the stubble with bustards and cranes.
The attendant then rides forward, the whole operation being so punctually timed that you reach the crest of the ridge at the same moment as the walking bustards have arrived within shot thereof.
As bands of bustards are numerous, this poaching plan might be carried out night after night; but luckily the bustards will not stand the same experience twice.
The young bustards grow with that wheat, and, ere it is reaped (unless prematurely massacred), are able to take care of themselves.
Bustards seldom run, but they walk very fast, especially when alarmed.
It being noon, the bustards were mostly lying down or standing drowsily, and we halted for lunch before commencing the operation.
Bustards being soft-plumaged are not hard to kill.
And among the things of sport are few more attractive scenes than a band of great bustards at rest.
As the familiar sound of the cattle-bell becomes louder and nearer, the ray of light brighter and brighter, and the surrounding darkness more intense, the bustards are too charmed or too dazed to fly.
When adult, bustards are usually quite silent, save for a grunting noise in spring--that is, in captivity.
Now bustards are, in Spanish phrase, muy querenciosos, i.
Rarely do watercourses or valleys of sufficient depth lend a welcome aid; recourse must usually be had to the reverse slope of the hill whereon the bustards happen to be.
We have frequently been asked by the country people to try our hands at their ambuscades by the wells (above described), and often caused surprise by declining to kill bustards in this way.
The young bustards grow with the wheat, and ere it is cut are able to take care of themselves.
This marked difference of habit between congeneric species so closely allied as the two Bustards is very curious.
Turning now to the Bustards of the marisma, we must first explain that there are no bustards in the marisma proper--that is the home of the Flamingo.
Bustards take two years or more to acquire maturity: the year-old males are hardly larger than adult females, possess neither ruff nor whiskers, and do not breed.
Another charming spectacle it is in the summer-time to watch a pack of bustards about sunset, all busy with their evening feed among the grasshoppers on a thistle-covered plain.
As bands of bustards are numerous, this poaching plan might be carried out night after night: but, luckily, the bustards will not stand the same experience twice.
During one year (his best) the writer bagged sixty-two bustards to his own gun.
There is also reason to believe that with certain bustards and rail-like birds, which properly undergo a double moult, some of the older males retain their nuptial plumage throughout the year.
The male alone of one of the Indian bustards (Sypheotides auritus) has its primary wing-feathers greatly acuminated; and the male of an allied species is known to make a humming noise whilst courting the female.
With certain bustards and plovers the vernal moult is far from complete, some feathers being renewed, and some changed in colour.
When the sport was over, Frank got hold of one of the warreners who had come to see it and asked him if he had ever seen any great bustards about the warren, or the adjacent fens.
The news soon spread among the naturalists of the county, and one of them, who had some tame bustards in confinement, generously offered to give one of them to be let loose to pair with the wild cock.
Maybe the string was half a mile long, and then the men at work on the warrens, or the marshes, had orders to pull the string when they saw the bustards within reach of the guns.
Here are the two bustards of the eastern hemisphere, the great European bustard, the African ruffed and white-eared bustards, and the Arabian bustard.
The male alone of one of the Indian bustards (Sypheotides auritus) has its primary wing-feathers greatly acuminated; and the male of an allied species is known to make a humming noise whilst courting the female.
Bustards were numerous, and the Harlequin pigeon was seen in large flocks.
The Bustardsare called graminivorous, but are somewhat omnivorous feeders; mice, frogs, worms, and young birds are occasionally added to their usual vegetable diet.
This is now a very rare species in Great Britain, although once plentiful, according to old writers, who state that it was customary with greyhounds "To hunt the Bustards in the fens.
Victor points to a flock of bustards feeding in security on the plain.
We have successfully approached bustards in this manner, both in India and Tartary.
It is seldom, even when shooting with heavy charges of powder and cartridges, that standing or running shots at bustards prove fatal.
The bustardsmight be taken, if a person started them suddenly; for they fly but a short distance, like partridges, and soon tire.
There were bustardsin droves on these heaths, and roe deer to be found easily enough by those who had skill to seek them in the right places.
The bustards were nesting; but that is the time when one can best course the great birds, and many a good gallop we had after them.
The bustards were not so hard to catch when started suddenly; for they only take short flights, like partridges, and are soon tired.
In autumn Bustards are gregarious, when they leave the open downs for more sheltered situations.
There were great quantities of a cinnamon-coloured bittern seen, as well as quails, doves, and large plovers, but not any of the bustards mentioned by Flinders.
Several of the bustards spoken of by Flinders, were noticed; but too wary to be killed.
Two brown bustards rose out of the grass; they were of the same size and colour as those seen in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and quite as wary, which was very singular.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "bustards" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
