1 60 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



Bustards took place in the winter of 1879-80, and 

 the occurrence then of eight or nine of these fine 

 birds (of which only one was a male) was noticed 

 at the time in the pages of The Field and The 

 Zoologist. The last visitation of note occurred in 

 the winter of 1890-91, when amongst the localities 

 visited the following were recorded : Southminster, 

 Essex, December 1890 ; Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, 

 December 1890; Romsey, Hants, January 1891; 

 Winchelsea, Sussex, January 1891 ; Stiffkey, Nor- 

 folk, Jan. 19, and Chippenham, Wilts, Feb. 4, 1891. 

 Details of all these occurrences will be found in 

 an article on the " Recent Visitation of Bustards," 

 published in The Field, of Feb. 28, 1891. Since 

 that date one was shot at Costessy, Norfolk, Feb. 

 1, 1894, and a few others have been met with 

 in other parts of the country ; one of the latest 

 reported was shot in October 1897 near Market 

 Lavington, an ancient haunt of the species on the 

 Wiltshire downs. ^ 



The former existence of the Bustard in parts of 

 Scotland is referred to by Hector Boece in 1527 

 and Bishop Leslie in 1578. Fleming states ("Hist. 

 Brit. An.," p. 115) that in 1803 one was shot in 

 Morayshire by William Young of Borough Head. 

 Another was seen in Strath Skinsdale, Sutherland- 



^ Aubrey, in his notes on the Natural History of Wiltshire, written 

 between 1656 and 1691 (ed. Britton, 1847, p. 164), has this remark: 

 " On Salisbury plaines, especially about Stonehenge, are bustards. 

 They are also in the fields above Lavington." Here in 1801 a nest 

 containing two eggs was found in a wheat-field shortly after a male 

 bustard had been captured in the neighbourhood. A. C. Smith, 

 " Birds of Wiltshire," p. 353. 



