GREAT BUSTARD. 27 
by Mr. G. 8. Kett, of Brooke, a former treasurer 
of the Hospital:—“I perfectly well remember Mr. 
Hardy’s bustards. He had them many years, and 
succeeded in making them quite domesticated. At one 
time I recollect his having three, if not four; they 
were beautiful birds, especially the adult ones, but they 
were sent away before I was treasurer to the Hospital. 
I understood they were dismissed in consequence of the 
male bird annoying the convalescent patients in the 
airing grounds. They had always the appearance of 
being very healthy, but I cannot say how Mr. Hardy 
first became possessed of them, or how he reared the 
young.” The article in “Fraser's Magazine,” for 
September, 1854, supposed to be written by the late 
Mr. Broderip, mentions a few other cases of tame 
bustards—three kept by the Duke of Queensberry on his 
lawn at Newmarket, and one possessed for a long time 
by Mr. Westall, of Risby, in Suffolk. Mr. Mac Took, 
a former owner of Sandringham, is also said to have 
kept a tame bustard,* and in his notes on this specics, 
supplied to Mr. Yarrell, the Rev. R. Lubbock writes, 
* A very fine male bird in Mr. Newcome’s collection at Feltwell, 
was, until lately, in the possession of Lord Lilford, who received it 
alive from the Zoological Gardens at Brussels, having come origi- 
nally, he believes, from Leipsic. This bird, which died in January, 
1867, was preserved in perfect health for nearly four years, the 
only one his lordship has been able to keep in confinement more 
than a few months. “ By nature,” writes its former owner, “he 
was exceedingly bold and tame, and would approach any one who 
entered the aviary quite fearlessly, making a curious guttural noise 
almost impossible to describe. He ate mice, raw meat, worms, 
snails, wheat, barley, turnip-tops, lettuce, and grass, and lived 
amicably with other birds, godwits, a purple water-hen, bronze- 
winged pigeons, &c., though he and a gold-pheasant cock had 
differences, and the latter was quite the master.” The gular 
pouch was, I understand, found in this bird, when skinned by 
Leadbeater. 
E 2 
