140 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



busy scene^ we now find it wholly uninhabited. Here and there we 

 meet a flock of sheep scattered over the side of some rising- ground ; 

 and a shepherd with his dog' attending them j or perhaps we may 

 descry some solitary waggon winding round a distant hill. But 

 the only resident inhabitant of this vast waste is the bustard. This 

 bird, which is the largest fowl we have in England; is fond of all 

 extensive plains, and is found on several ; but these are supposed to 

 be his principal haunt. Here he breeds, and here he spends his 

 summer-day, feeding with his mate on juicy berries, and the large 

 dew- worms of the heath. As winter approaches, he forms into society. 

 Fifty or sixty have been sometimes seen together. As the bustard 

 leads his life in these unfrequented wilds, and studiously avoids the 

 haunts of men, the appearance of anything in motion, though at a 

 considerable distance, alarms him. . . . As he is so noble a 

 prize, his flesh so delicate, and the quantity of it so large, he is of 

 course frequently the object of the fowler's stratagems. But his 

 caution is generally a protection against them all. The scene he 

 frequents, affords neither tree to shelter, nor hedge to skreen, an 

 enemy; and he is so tall, that when he raises his neck to take a 

 perspective view, his eye circumscribes a very wide horizon. All 

 open attempts, therefore against him are fruitless. The fowler's 

 most promising statagem is to conceal himself in a waggon. The 

 west-country waggons, periodically travelling these regions, are ob- 

 jects to which the bustard is most accustomed ; and though he retires 

 at their approach, he retires with less evident signs of alarm, than 

 from anything else. It is possible, therefore, if the fowler lies close 

 in such a concealment, and with a long-barrelled gun can direct a 

 good aim, he may make a lucky shot. Sometimes also he slips from 

 the tail of a waggon a couple of swift greyhounds. They soon come 

 up with the bustard, though he runs well ; and if they can contrive 

 to reach him, just as he is on the point to take wing (an operation 

 which he performs with less expedition than is requisite in such 

 critical circumstances) they may perhaps seize him.^ 



^ On the Bustard and its extinction in England, see Wilts A.rcli. Magazine, 

 vol. ii., p. 212 ; also the interesting article on this bird, in vol. iii., by our 

 Wiltshire ornithologist, as well as antiquary, the Eev. A. C. Smith. In Sir 



