BIRDS. 67 
her husband (who was vicar of Reighton, and died in 
1834) were invited to dine at Boynton Hall with Sir Wm. 
Strickland, the principal dish being a Great Bustard, which 
Sir William in his note of invitation described as probably 
the ‘last of his race.’ Sir Charles Anderson believes the 
existence of the Great Bustard in Yorkshire ceased in 
1832 or 1833, when the last hen bird was trapped on Sir 
W. Strickland’s estate at Boynton, near Bridlington. 
Mr. Arthur Strickland, in the account which he furnished 
to Mr. Allis in 1844, said that it used to be a constant 
resident on the extensive wolds in the East Riding, but that 
from the extension of tillage and the numerous enclosures 
which had taken place during the half century, and from the 
introduction of artificial crops, particularly saintfoin and 
clover—which from being early cut often led to their 
destruction—they rapidly decreased, and had then been for 
some years quite extinct. About thirty years before [z.e., 
1814], when he first knew the district, the flock frequent- 
ing the part of the Wolds near Bridlington was reduced to 
five or six, and appeared to remain at that standing for 
some time, and he not unfrequently met with it when 
riding about. It, however, soon became reduced, and it 
was about fifteen years before [z¢., 1829] that the last was 
killed at Reighton, since which none had been seen in the 
neighbourhood. He believed those frequenting the Wolds 
south of Driffield remained in existence some years longer, 
but were then—at the time of his writing—totally extermi- 
nated. 
In this last and somewhat off-hand statement, which he 
does not substantiate, I am of opinion that Mr. Strickland 
was mistaken, for, judging from the evidence which I am 
able to quote, the birds on the north Wolds certainly 
existed a few years later than those in the south. 
The last Bustards which frequented the southern portion 
of the Wolds were in the vicinity of North and South 
Dalton. There is an egg—the only Yorkshire one known 
to exist—in the Scarborough Museum, the note attached 
to which states that it was found by Mr. James Dowker, at 
North Dalton, in the East Riding, in 1810. This was pre- 
sented to the Museum in March, 1840, by Dr. John Bury 
(Fielden, Zool., 1870, p. 2063). Mr. John Wolley, the 
eminent oologist, who saw the egg in 1843 and in 1850, 
noted in his egg-book that it had been ‘ boiled with the 
notion of preserving it’ and was of ‘bad colour’ (Fielden, 
