THE GREAT AND LITTLE BUSTARDS 5 



wilder parts of Spain. We gather this from the 

 information gained in their haunts by two well- 

 known authors on ornithological matters. 



Our South Downs were much favoured by the 

 Bustards. You may yet meet some ancient shepherd 

 there who will tell you he has seen one or two 

 stray visitants, or what is far more possible, he will 

 tell you what his father has told him years ago. If 

 they find you interested in their tales of the hills, 

 past and present, you may safely rely on the accuracy 

 of the information these old men give you. They 

 do not get a chat with a stranger very often up 

 there. 



The Bustard feeds chiefly on grain and green 

 food of various kinds, trefoils, charlock, rape, etc. 

 The advance of cultivation has had something to 

 do with the extinction of the Bustard, but not every- 

 thing. Bustards have been killed off, too, in ways 

 I need not mention ; for those who killed them 

 have left records behind them on that subject. 

 They would, however, be here now, if those stray 

 birds that tried to make settlements from time to 

 time had been left unmolested. So-called scientists 

 and egg-collectors have much to answer for. 



The Little Bustard can only be considered as a 

 rare straggler ; those eggs of the bird which I have 

 seen were procured on the Continent. As the bird 

 has not nested in this country, we need not describe 

 them. In its haunts it is considered to be one of 

 the most wary birds that the shooter goes in search 

 of. It is far more cautious than its large relative, 



