1 62 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



many Bustards' eggs from different parts of the 

 county, which he placed under hens, and hatched 

 out in an enclosure at the back of the hospital. 

 Interesting details, too long to be quoted here, will 

 be found in the second volume of Stevenson's " Birds 

 of Norfolk." 



Some years ago the Acclimatisation Society of 

 Paris offered prizes for the successful domestication 

 of the Bustard, one of the conditions being that the 

 birds should be proved to have laid and hatched 

 eggs in confinement. In the Bulletin of that Society 

 for 1861 (p. 318), M. Althammer communicated the 

 result of his attempts to domesticate this bird in 

 the Tyrol. Three eggs were laid, the hen bird sat, 

 and incubation lasted twenty-five days, at the end of 

 which time one young one was hatched. 



In 1876 an attempt was made in Warwickshire 

 to domesticate the Bustard by Mr. F. Lythall, of 

 Offchurch, near Leamington, who turned out some 

 on his farm. On Dec. 10 in that year he wrote, 

 " The Bustards are tame, and eat out of the hand. 

 They are loose by day, and shut up at night. I 

 think they pair, but they have not laid at present, 

 or if they have, I have not found the eggs" [ZooL, 

 1880, p. 254). As no further news of them was 

 received, it was conjectured that the experiment 

 had not proved successful. In February of that 

 year (1876) strenuous efforts were made by Mr. 

 H. M. Upcher to protect a Bustard which had made 

 its appearance in Blackdyke Fen, Hockwold, and 

 which remained there for seven weeks. The steps 



