1 1 



THE WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL 



OF 



GREAT BRITAIN 



CHAPTER I 



THE GREAT AND LITTLE BUSTARDS 



This noble bird, which was once indigenous to 

 the plains and wastes of this country, has been 

 exterminated as a resident, and no consolation can 

 be derived from this mournful fact in any shape 

 or way. The feathered coursers of the Yorkshire 

 wolds and the Wiltshire Downs are gone ; the 

 lands that they once frequented remain pretty much 

 as they were, but the Bustards are gone, and taking 

 into consideration the means and ways employed for 

 their destruction, the fact can hardly be a matter of 

 wonder. 



I have some old records by me, relating to the 

 middle and latter part of the seventeenth century 

 and the early part of the eighteenth. They tell of 



