10 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
Swaffham tract the drove formerly consisted of, at least, 
twenty-seven birds, as the Rev. Henry Dugmore, of 
Beachamwell, informs me that he perfectly remembers 
(although he cannot recall the exact date*) riding on 
one occasion, at Westacre, in company with the late Rev. 
Robert Hamond, and, when walking their horses across 
the open country, the whole drove of twenty-seven 
bustards flew by them within fifty or sixty yards. Mr. 
Scales, also, in the same locality once saw twenty-three 
together ; and Mr. Hamond, of High House, Westacre, 
can recollect this drove as numbering twenty-two birds. 
There can be little doubt, therefore, if earlier information 
were available, it would be found that in strength this 
drove was by no means inferior to that which at the same 
time frequented the other tract. Again, from twenty- 
three or twenty-two, this drove subsequently decreased 
to seventeen or sixteen, then to eleven, at which number 
Mr. Hamond remembers it long stood, and finally 
dwindled to five and two; all accounts agreeing in this, 
that the last remaining birds were hens only. The 
cause of this diminution has already been briefly stated 
in the “ Introduction ” to this work (vol. 1., pp. li., Iii.) 
It may be, however, convenient to repeat here more 
fully that the hen bustard nearly always laid her eggs 
in the winter-sown corn, which in former days was, 
almost without exception, rye—sown broadcast after the 
old fashion. As the mode of tillage improved, wheat 
there were visited by birds of the opposite sex from the other 
locality ; but this is not very likely to have been the case, as it is 
pretty nearly certain that at the time when the presence of the 
cocks in the Swaffham tract was most desirable there were none 
left in the neighbourhood of Thetford. 
* Mr. Gould, in his “ Birds of Great Britain,” records this same 
incident, quoting from a letter addressed to the Rev. John 
Fountaine by Mr. Henry Dugmore, and though the date is 
not given, it is said to have been “as far back as 1820.” 
