60 Mr. Christy on Great Bustard and 



under the wall of the Eiver Crouch, for the purpose of 

 shooting wild-fowl. While thus stationed he was surprised 

 to observe a very large bird fly leisurely over the river and 

 then over his head at but a very little height. His gun 

 being loaded with No. 2 shot, he fired and brought it 

 down, although but slightly wounded. At first he had 

 no idea of the name of the bird, but it turned out to 

 be a Great Bustard. 



For the benefit of those who are not ornithologists I will 

 here make a few remarks on tliis interesting species. So 

 far as our own country is concerned, the Great Bustard is 

 now almost extinct, the dawn of the present century 

 having seen very nearly the last of it as a resident in these 

 Islands. Indeed, one might say that it was even then 

 quite extinct. Those stray specimens that have been met 

 with during the last eighty years or so have been birds 

 driven by accident or stress of weather from the Continent, 

 where, under more favourable conditions of existence, it is 

 still no very great rarity. During the last and the preced- 

 ing centuries it might even have been called a common 

 bird, especially on the wide open downs in Wiltshire and 

 Sussex, and various places in Norfolk. In Gilbert White's 

 time it was probably not a bird of every-day occurrence, 

 for he says under date 1770 : '' There be bustards on the 

 wide Downs near Brighthelmstone." A quaint and primi- 

 tive natural history work which I possess''' speaks of it 

 occurring in the places mentioned, and also on Eoyston 

 and Newmarket Heaths in Cambridgeshire, but admits 

 that it was once far more common in England. The book 

 contains a fairly good figure of the bird. I will quote a 

 few lines describing the mode of taking them then 

 employed : — 



" Where there are neither woods nor hedges to screen 

 the sportsman, they enjoy a kind of indolent security. . . . 

 But though they cannot be reached by a fowling-piece, 

 they are sometimes run down by greyhounds. Being 

 voracious and greedy, they often sacrifice their safety to 



* " The Naturalist's Pocket Magazme, or ComxDieat Cabinet of 

 Nature." London, 1799 and 1800. 



