476 THE FF.'MHERED TUIBES. 



These observations are sustained by tbe testimony of an old " Booke cf Falconrie," 

 which thus describes what are called Great Flights : " There is yet another kind of 

 flij?bt to the fielde, called the great flight, as to the cranes, wild geese, bustard, and 

 many other such like, and these you may flee from the fist, which is -properly tearmed 

 the source. Nevertheless, in this kind of hawking, which is called the great flight, the 

 falcons or other hawks cannot well accomplish their flight at the cranes, bustard, or such 

 like, unlesse they have the helpe of some spaniell, or such dogge, wel inured and taught 

 for that purpose with your hawke. Forasmuch as great flights require pleasant ayde and 

 assistance, j-ea, and that with great diligence." 



The gular pouch, with which these birds are provided, is capable of containing a 

 considerable quantity of water. Douglass supposes that the bustard fills it with water in 

 the midst of the dreary plains in which it is accustomed to wander ; and Bewick adds, that 

 one of these birds, kept in a caravan as a show, lived without drinking. Others con- 

 jecture that this pouch is a provision for carrying water to the female during the time of 

 incubation,' and to the young. But this may be doubted, since the male is never seen in 

 company with the female except before incubation. The fact is, that the precise purpose 

 of this natural water-bag has not yet been ascertained. 



'■The Rev. Richard Lubbock sent me word," says Mr. Yarrell, "that a female bustard 

 bred near Thetford in 1832, and carried oft' her young ones. This nest was upon 

 a warren, but it is most commonly placed in rye. ISIr. Elwes shot a female to 

 a pointer, in a turnip-field at Congham, in the autumn of 1831." The continuation of 

 these notes is as follows : — ■" I know one instance of a specimen killed on the contrary 

 side of Norfolk to that which they generally aftect. About ten years ago, a person 

 returning liome in tlie parish of Palling, upon the coast near AVinterton, 'saw an immense 

 bird walking in a marsh by the road-side. He rode home, brought his gun, and shot it ; 

 it proved to be a male bustard of the second year, and is now in the collection of Mr. 

 Postlc, a near relation of mine. This is exactly the opposite part of the county to that in 

 which they are generally found. When a boy, I remember two or three individuals in a 

 domesticated state. I recollect one of these birds swallowing, in an instant, a thin 

 leathern glove which I dropped. The system of weeding out corn in the spring has tended, 

 perhaps, more than any other cause, to the decrease of bustards ; since egg colkctors 

 became numerous, a nest is a valuable prize indeed. A very fine bird — an old male — 

 is still in preservation, as a stuffed specimen, at the house of a friend in my noighbour- 

 liood, which was taken by greyhounds forty years ago, within three miles of Norwich." 



THE ASIATIC BfSIArvD.* 



Mr. Gould has gi\cn a magnificent representation of this bird, which was brouglil from 

 the Highlands of the Himalaya, but it is not confined to that locality. Colonel Sykes 

 observed it in the wide and open country of the jVIulirattas, where it lives in larg(> flocks, 

 and i.s considered one of the greatest delicacies as an article of food. So abundant are they 

 in the Deccan, that one gentleman shot nearly a thousand of these birds. 



The length of the male bird of this species, inclusive of tail, is OG'i inches. The female 

 resembles it in plumage, but is only 41 inches, including the tail. Tlie male is furnished 

 with the gular pouch. 



• Colonel Sykej found an egg in a hole in the earth on the open plain, and lliat con- 

 .sidcrably advanced in the process of incubation. In sliapc it was a perfect oval ; and in 

 colour a brown olive, with obscure blotches of darker brown olive. 



Otis Nigiicrps. 



