GREAT BUSTARD. d 



And, again, in tlie year 1530, amongst ilie list of 

 gratuities — 



Itm in reward the xxvtli day of July to Baxter's svnt of Stan- 

 newgh [Stanhoe] for bryngyng of ij yong busterds, ij**- 



Nearly a century and a half later. Sir Tliomas 

 Browne* (who died in 1682), describes the bustard as 



* The only other reference to this species to be found in the 

 writings of this distinguished naturalist is contained in the 

 following postcript to a letter written by Sir Thomas, in 1681, 

 to his son Edward, as published in Wilkin's edition of his works 

 (vol. i., p. 311) : — "Yesterday I had a cock bustard sent mee from 

 beyond Thetford. I neuer did see such a vast thick neck : the 

 crop was pulled out, butt as a turkey hath an odde large substance 

 without, so had this within the inside of the sTcinne, and the strongest 

 and largest neck bone of any bird in England. This I tell you, 

 that if you meet with one you may further obserue it." From this 

 passage, it would seem that this wonderful observer of nature, as 

 much in advance of his time in this, as in other scientific 

 investigations, had arrived very nearly at the discovery of the 

 " gular pouch" in this species (figured by Edwards, Bewick, and 

 others), which has caused so much controversy amongst tho 

 most eminent ornithologists, and the existence of which, though 

 now fully established, has been so often and so stoutly denied. 

 Space does not permit me to do much more than direct the 

 attention of my readers to other works in which this interesting 

 subject has been fully discussed. Suffice it, then, to say that the 

 discovery made by Dr. James Douglas in the early part of the 

 last century, of a large sac or pouch capable of much distention, 

 and situated within the skin of the neck of the male bustard, 

 but which the subsequent investigations of Professor Owen, 

 Mr. Yarrell, Mr. Bartlett, Dr. Giinther, and others failed to estab- 

 lish, has been fully confirmed beyond the possibihty of doubt, by 

 Dr. W. H. Cullen, of Kustendjie, Bulgaria (see "Ibis," 1865, 

 p. 143), from the examination of two fine adult males, killed in that 

 country, both of which exhibited an opening under the tongue, 

 leading directly into a pouch, which extended as far downwards as 

 the furcular bone — " a separate and distinct though delicate bladder, 

 very much resembling in appearance the air bladder in fishes." 

 One of these specimens now in the Museum of the Eoyal College 

 b2 



