A birder friend has been doing excellent work archiving birdwatching material, and in the middle of all the serious stuff, I found that:

“xyz….

Includes some notes on Salim Ali’s proposal for the Great Indian Bustard as national bird. Said to have been quashed partly for the potential of spelling errors ….”

Reminded me of

Ogden Nash, whom I referred to in this entry

while talking about this NTP friend who’s also done a lot of work on this bird.

I’d say the national bird SHOULD also be a bird that is seen often….so that the people have a sense of identity with it. On this count, too, the Bustard would not qualify!