GREAT BUSTARD. 39 
bustards, containing specimens, which, in all probability, 
were killed in that county, but of their true history I 
can learn nothing conclusive, although the late Lady 
Middleton kindly interested herself in making enquiries 
respecting them.* 
Besides the eggs already mentioned in the Westacre 
and Congham collections, Mr. Alfred Newton possesses 
one of the eggs (two pairs and a single one) laid by 
three females on Massingham-heath, in the spring of 
1833, as before stated. This egg, as is shown by an 
inscription on it in Mr. Salmon’s handwriting, was 
presented by him to the late Mr. John Wolley, and 
was by the latter left, with the rest of his magnificent 
oological collection, to Mr. Newton. Another of this 
same series of eggs, from Massingham, was also in Mr. 
Salmon’s collection, bequeathed by him to the Linnean 
Society, but this, with many other of the rarer speci- 
mens, disappeared in a mysterious manner before the 
Society had been able to take possession of their valuable 
legacy. It formed the subject of the figure in the last 
edition (1866, pl. Ixxiii., fig. 1) of Mr. Hewitson’s well 
known work, and should it still be in existence, would 
probably be recognisable by its portrait. 
A second egg in Mr. Alfred Newton’s possession is 
marked “ Great Massingham, Norfolk, probably about 
1835 or 1836.” The egg was purchased by Mr. Newton 
of Mr. H. B. Rodwell, of Brancaster, who had received 
* In a clever little work by the Rev. W. 8. Symonds, entitled 
“Old Bones,” it is mentioned (p. 70, 2nd ed.) that the Worcester 
Museum contains a pair of bustards “captured in Norfolk,” and 
presented by the present Lord Lyttleton. All the enquiries I have 
been able to make have failed to furnish me with any further par- 
ticulars respecting these specimens, except that they were stuffed 
by Weaver, of Birmingham, and given to the museum in 1849, 
as I am informed by Mr. Reece, the secretary and curator, who 
believes that they were for some time in the late Lord Lyttleton’s 
possession. 
