GREAT BUSTARD. 7 
and that gentleman having taken the trouble of tracing 
its history, ascertained that this specimen was killed at 
Dersingham, near Castle Rising, in Norfolk, on the 
28th of the preceding January.* Later in the same 
year (1838), another specimen, also a female, was killed 
at Lexham, near Swaffham,t+ and sent to Mr. Knight, of 
Norwich, to be preserved for the late Mr. F. W. Keppel. 
This bird was found on dissection to contain an egg 
nearly ready for exclusion, and when examined, in the 
flesh, by Mr. J. H. Gurney and others, had the down 
under the breast feathers suffused with a most delicate 
rose coloured tint, which, according to Yarrell, was 
also observed in the Dersingham bird, and, if looked 
for, will probably be found in all specimens. It may 
even still be open to doubt whether this was really the 
last killed in England deserving the name of a British 
bustard, since in Mr. Dowell’s MS. notes I find the 
following brief but important entry :—‘‘ A great bustard 
was killed by Mr. Woods, of Morston, about 1837, and 
was sent to Lord Charles Townshend.” On further 
enquiry, that gentleman’s son, Mr. W. G. Woods writes, 
under date of March 20th, 1865 :—“ The great bustard I 
took to Lord C. Townshend, about twenty-four years 
since; it was a female, but whether young or old I don’t 
know. I never heard of its being seen there before. It 
was killed in autumn.” Mr. Dowell, who, I believe, 
made the entry in his note book from a verbal statement 
* Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden, also confirms this 
account in a recent letter, and adds that having heard of this 
specimen, he at once proceeded to Cambridge with the hope of 
securing it for the Saffron Walden Museum, but Mr. Borrer had 
already purchased it. 
+ This is the same bird recorded in the “Annals of Natural 
History” for 1838 (vol. i. p. 334); and again in 1839, in vol. iu. of 
the same journal, p. 141. 
