GREAT BUSTARD. 41 



kindly informs me that lie lias a pair of bustards' eggs, 

 which were procured in Norfolk by his grandfather, Mr. 

 Elwes, of Congham, and Colesborne, about the year 1830, 

 for the Rev. J. Pitt, who subsequently presented them 

 to him. He believes them to have been taken on 

 Massingham heath. 



A single egg in the possession of Mr. Clarke, of 

 North Wootton, has been satisfactorily established by 

 Mr. Southwell, as a genuine Norfolk specimen, although 

 its having been blown with two holes at the side, 

 according to modern custom, seemed to mark it as 

 of somewhat too recent date. This point has, however, 

 been fully explained, and other interesting particulars 

 respecting it obligingly communicated by Miss Charlotte 

 St. John, formerly of Gayton Hall, in this County, 

 who, in a letter to Mr. Southwell, remarks — " The egg 

 in question was given to me by the late Rev. Robert 

 Hamond, I should think about forty years ago. It was 

 found by him or his keeper Denny on Massingham 

 heath, and I have a better remembrance of it from the 

 circumstance that he sent it in a small beautifully-made 

 coffin about a foot long. The egg was inside, wrapped 

 up in cotton wool. I can easily explain the two holes 

 at the side. Mr. Hamond blew it himself and always 

 did so ; but I blew mine at the two ends, a point on 

 which we did not agree." This egg, therefore, formed 

 part of Miss St. John's collection, which she presented 

 about two years ago to the late Mrs. Barnes, of Gayton 

 Hall, at whose death it passed into the hands of Mr. 

 Clarke as above stated. It is scarcely possible, at this 

 distance of time, to ascertain the exact date when the 

 egg was taken, but if, as appears by no means improb- 

 able, the little coffin so quaintly employed by Mr. 

 Hamond as an egg shell, had some covert allusion to 

 the gradual extinction of the bustard in Norfolk, Miss 

 St. John is most likely correct in saying, that it was 

 " about forty years ago." 



G 



