174 On the Ornithology of Wilts \_Struthiomdce]. 



in Nubia. It is of so pugnacious a disposition, that it was kept by 

 the Greeks and Romans, as it is at this day by the Chinese, for the 

 express purpose of fighting after the manner of our game cocks. 

 Its period of arrival in western Europe is May, and of departure 

 October. 



STRUTHIONIDiE (The Bustards). 



This is a family which I must not omit in my catalogue of Wiltshire 

 birds, inasmuch as our open downs and extensive plains were once a 

 stronghold of the race : but alas ! Bustards are extinct in Great 

 Britain, and the last British killed specimen, whose memoir I read 

 before our Society,' and which was captured on the borders of our 

 county, was no home bred bird, but a straggler which had been 

 driven out of his course. As I have already devoted a whole chap- 

 ter to this subject, I need but enumerate the 



"Bustard" (Otis tarda), as having been seen in Wiltshire at 

 the end of the last century by many who are now alive : and I may 

 add that after a correspondence which I had with the late Mr. 

 Yarrell, the talented author of the history of British Birds, and 

 from a quantity of papers and extracts which he was so good as to 

 send me on the subject, I am but confirmed in the opinions I have 

 expressed regarding this bird : neither have I anything of import- 

 ance to add beyond the information courteously furnished me by 

 Mr. James Waylen, " that when Col. Thornton, who once rented 

 Spye Park, sported in Wiltshire, he occasionally flew his Hawks, at 

 Bustards, the apparent slowness of the Bustard when seen at a 

 distance tempting him to the trial : but the hawks had no chance." 



I have no record of the occurrence of the Little Bustard (Otis 

 tetrax) in Wiltshire ; though it has been killed on several occasions 

 in the neighbouring counties. Therefore the name of the Great 

 Bustard must close the list of Wiltshire birds belonging to this 

 Order : and here we finish our description of the Land Birds, reser- 

 ving for future papers the Water Birds, which will occupy com- 

 paratively little space. Alfred Charles Smith. 



Yaleshury Hectory, Calne, 

 Jamiary, 1868. 



' Wiltshire Magazine, vol. iii., pp. 129-145. 



