Bustards are Old World birds, reaching eastwards to Australia, where _Eupodotis australis_ is called the "Native Turkey." _E. edwardsi_ inhabits the plains of India, _E. arabs_ extends from Arabia to North Africa, and _E. kori_ from the East to the South of that continent. _Otis_ ranges over South and Central Europe, and thence to North Africa, inhabiting also Mid-Asia to North-West India, the Yangtze-Kiang River and Japan. _Houbara undulata_, the African Ruffed Bustard, reaches from the Canaries,[176] through the Mediterranean basin to about Armenia; its congener _H. macqueeni_, which strays westward to Britain, being resident in Persia, North India and Central Asia. _Houbaropsis bengalensis_ and _Sypheotis aurita_ are the Florican and Lesser Florican of India; _Lophotis_, _Compsotis_, _Heterotetrax_, _Neotis_, _Lissotis_, and _Trachelotis_ inhabit the Ethiopian Region. The members of the Family are to some extent migratory, and perhaps the Great Bustard was partly so of old in Britain. The members of this Family flock in winter, and occasionally form small parties at other seasons, the males being very possibly polygamous, though the fact is hardly proved. Typically inland birds, they haunt dry grassy and sandy plains, or cultivated ground {263}where the crops are low, yet sometimes they choose more bushy flats, or stony tops of elevated ridges. Their flight is prolonged and often rapid, though invariably heavy, the neck and legs being outstretched; the Great Bustard rises from the ground slowly, the Little Bustard with a rattling noise, but they are frequently loth to leave it, crouching to escape detection on the similarly coloured soil. They stalk about rapidly and run with ease, being shy, wary, and far-sighted, while they are more easy to approach when they resort to water. The quill-feathers are said to be lost after breeding.[177] In spring the pugnacious cocks strut around the hens, swelling out their plumage, and inflating the gular pouch when it is present; the head meanwhile is thrown backwards, the wings droop, the tail is usually erected and outspread, and booming or crooning utterances with leaps diversify the performance. At times the notes are described as scolding, drumming, craking, and clucking, or resemble "cok-cok" or "prut-prut." The diet consists chiefly of juicy plants, such as young corn and turnips, clover and plantains, but it includes berries and seeds, insects and their larvae, molluscs, myriapods, frogs, or even small reptiles and mammals. The Gom-Paauw[178] (_Eupodotis kori_) is so-called from its love of mimosa gum. The eggs, varying from two to four or five in different species, are deposited in an excavation in the soil–sometimes lined with grass–under shelter of a bush, tussock, or growing crop; they are oily-green, olive, drab, red-brown, or exceptionally bluish-green, and are generally blotched, clouded, or zoned with purplish or dull red. The hen sits very closely.