GREAT BUSTARD. 27 



by Mr. G. S. Kett, of Brooke, a former treasurer 

 of the Hospital : — " I perfectly well remember Mr. 

 Hardy's bustards. He had them many years, and 

 succeeded in making them quite domesticated. At one 

 time I recollect his having three, if not four; they 

 were beautiful birds, especially the adult ones, but they 

 were sent away before I was treasurer to the Hospital. 

 I understood they were dismissed in consequence of the 

 male bird annoying the convalescent patients in the 

 airing grounds. They had always the appearance of 

 being very healthy, but I cannot say how Mr. Hardy 

 first became possessed of them, or how he reared the 

 young." The article in "Eraser's Magazine," for 

 September, 1854, supposed to be written by the late 

 Mr. Broderip, mentions a few other cases of tame 

 bustards — three kept by the Duke of Queensberry on his 

 lawn at Newmarket, and one possessed for a long time 

 by Mr. Westall, of Eisby, in Suffolk. Mr. Mac Took, 

 a former owner of Sandringham, is also said to have 

 kept a tame bustard,^ and in his notes on this species, 

 supplied to Mr. Yarrell, the Rev. R. Lubbock writes. 



* A very fine male bird in Mr. Newcome's collection at Feltwell, 

 was, until lately, in the possession of Lord Lilford, wlio received it 

 alive fi'om the Zoological Gardens at Brussels, having come origi- 

 nally, he believes, from Leipsic. This bird, which died in January, 

 1867, was preserved in perfect health for nearly four years, the 

 only one his lordship has been able to keep in. confinement more 

 than a few months. " By nature," writes its former owner, " he 

 was exceedingly bold and tame, and would approach any one who 

 entered the aviary quite fearlessly, making a curious guttural noise 

 almost impossible to describe. He ate mice, raw meat, worms, 

 snails, wheat, barley, turnip-tops, lettuce, and grass, and lived 

 amicably with other birds, godwits, a purple water-hen, bronze- 

 winged pigeons, &c., though he and a gold-pheasant cock had 

 difierences, and the latter was quite the master." The gular 

 pouch was, I understand, found in this bii'd, when skinned by 

 Leadbeater. 



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