366 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



Family OTIDID^. 



Genus OTIS, Liimajus. 



GEEAT BUSTAED. 



Otis tarda, Limiffius. 8.N., i., p. 2G4 (1766). 



It seems that the Great Bustard was well known in 

 Kent from a very early period, although the records of 

 individuals were never kept, from the fact that in those 

 early times, all those which fell victims to the fowler 

 were for the table, and not for a collection. 



Boys includes it in his Birds of Sandwich, 1792. 



An old specimen in the Canterbury Museum is supposed 

 to have been shot at Whitstable, but is without data. 



A female in the possession of the Eev. C. W. Shepherd, 

 Trotterscliffe Eectory, was discovered at an old furniture 

 shop at Eochester some years ago, and on the back of 

 the case was a label with " Killed at Hailing, Kent, 1797." 



In the Zoologist, 1850, Dr. F. Plomley, of Maidstone, 

 writing on January 16, says : I have been fortunate 

 enough to obtain that almost extinct bird in England, 

 the Great Bustard, which was shot at Lydd, in Eomney 

 Marsh, on January 4, 1850. The man who shot it 

 informs me that he had in his garden a wounded Wild 

 Goose, and that the Bustard (which he supposed to be 

 a Goose also) had been seen several times, by himself 

 and others, steadily flying over his garden, and that 

 on the morning of January 4, as he was standing at 

 his back door, he saw the bird at a distance flying direct 

 towards him ; he immediately stepped into bis house, 

 got his gun, and killed the bird as it was passing 

 over his wounded Goose. I believe this to be the only 

 instance of it being killed in Kent ; but from the 



