GREAT BUSTARD. 31 
“Field” (January 19th, 1867) :—“As I was in my 
boat after wild fowl, on the 7th instant, on Horsey- 
mere, I observed a large bird flying towards me. 
At first I mistook it for a heron, from its slow, 
steady flight, but on its nearer approach, I found out 
my mistake. The bird was coming directly over our 
heads, but bent its course when some sixty or seventy 
yards from us. We both fired, but the bird kept steadily 
on its way till we lost sight of it. I could not imagine 
what it was, never before having seen the great bustard 
on the wing; still, the peculiar round shape of the 
wing, jagged also at the edge, the neck, also, and head 
so small in comparison with the body, struck me much, 
and made me very anxious to get it. On the next two 
days it was seen again stalking in the marshes, like an 
over-grown turkey, but it would not allow any nearer 
approach than one hundred yards before it flew quietly 
away, taking, however, but short flights, for it seemed 
more careful than wild. Having now no doubt that the 
bird was the great bustard, I have been on the look 
out ever since, but when once the snow came the bird 
absconded.” I may here mention, that in April, 1866, 
a rumour reached me, through the Rev. C. Norris, 
of Briston, of two very large and unknown birds “as 
big as turkeys,” having been seen by some gunners at 
Wells-next-the-Sea, flying low over that district in a 
westerly direction. On further enquiry I was unable 
to elicit anything more definite than is here given, and 
should have scarcely considered the incident worth 
inserting, but for the fact that scarcely a week later I 
read in the “ Field” the notice of a bustard having been 
observed in Lincolnshire (April 14th, 1866), as before 
stated in the list of migratory specimens.* 
* The fact that the great bustard is a bird possessing the power 
of flight in a very high degree is one which has been too frequently 
overlooked by many English authors. If proof of this be wanted it 
