48 



CRANE GROUP 



evidently derived from obsolete stripes. A cock bustard, in full 

 breeding-dress, with his head drawn in and his plumage ruffled up so 

 as to display the white under-feathers, as is his practice when showing 

 off before the hens, is a truly magnificent, if somewhat ridiculous, sight. 

 The distributional range of the bustard includes southern and central 

 Europe and North Africa, together with Central Asia, as far east as 

 China. The species was never a native of Ireland, although a wanderer 

 was recorded in County Tipperary in 1903, and it has always been 

 only an occasional straggler to most parts of Scotland, although 

 resident in the lowlands of Berwickshire and other border districts. 

 In England its headquarters were the Yorkshire and Lincoln.shire 

 wolds, the open heathy districts of East Anglia, and the downs of 

 Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, northern Hertfordshire, and southern Cambridge- 

 shire, Berkshire, Hampshire, and Sussex. For the history of the 

 extermination of the species in Great Britain the reader must refer to 

 other works, and it will suffice to state that while these birds dis- 

 appeared from Berwickshire about the year 1526, they lingered on 

 Salisbury Plain till the early years of the last century, on the wolds 

 of eastern Yorkshire till about 1832, and in Norfolk and Sussex for 

 some little time after 1838, about which date the last fertile eggs were 

 taken. When they disappeared from the downs of the other counties 



mentioned above there is no record. Bustards 

 have twice been recorded in North Wales. 

 Nowadays, bustards arc met with only as 

 occasional visitors, which for the most part 

 resort to the eastern and southern counties, 

 where they generally meet with the reception 

 usually accorded to feathered strangers. 



As may be inferred from what is written 

 above, the bustard is a polygamous bird 

 haunting open countries, and spending its 

 time on the ground, or, rarel)', on the wing. 

 While in summer the adult cocks consort 

 with their own party of hens, in winter the 

 scattered families collect in large droves, as 

 do immature birds at all seasons. At the 

 commencement of the breeding-season, which 

 takes place in April or May, according to lati- 

 tude, the cocks fight among themselves for 

 the possession of the hens. Merc it may be mentioned that some doubt 

 has been expressed as to whether the species is really polygamous ; 



HEAD AND NKCK OF LOCK 

 mSTAKD. 



