THE GREAT BUSTARD 



{OTIS TARDA) 



nnHE knowledge that the magnificent Great 

 -^ Bustard was still a resident on English soil 

 not sixty years ago is well calculated to awaken 

 sad thoughts of regret in every reader who takes 

 an interest in our native birds, and more especially 

 in the preservation of disappearing or threatened 

 species. There is no evidence at present to suggest 

 that the Great Bustard ever was an inhabitant of 

 Ireland, whilst in the remainder of the United 

 Kingdom it seems to have been a local species 

 confined to the champaign areas, or bare and open 

 treeless districts. These were the Merse of Berwick- 

 shire, the open area of tlie Lothians, the wolds of 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, the warrens, heaths, 

 and brecks of Norfolk, Sufiblk, and Cambridge- 

 shire, and the downs and naked uplands of Dorset, 

 Wilts, Hants, Berks, Herts, and Sussex. Curiously 



enough, the earliest description of the Great Bustard 



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