44. BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
been unable to trace this specimen, but it evidently did 
not, as above stated, find its way into the national collec- 
tion. Mr. G. R. Gray, of the British museum, has very 
obligingly searched the records of donations about 
that period, and can find no reference to it, but, 
singularly enough, as will be seen by that gentleman’s 
“Catalogue,”’* one of the only two examples of the 
little bustard amongst the “ British Birds” in that 
collection, is entered as killed in Norfolk. This one, a 
male in full summer plumage, cannot be confounded in 
any way with Mr. Wood’s specimen obtained in the 
autumn, and is moreover known to have been purchased 
at the sale of Mr. Bullock’s celebrated museum. In an 
annotated copy of Bullock’s sale Catalogue, in the posses- 
sion of Mr. A. Newton, I find (page 27) the following 
entry :—“ Little Bustard, Otis tetrax, (male) extremely 
rare,” to which the former owner of the catalogue (Mr. 
George Caley) has added in writing, “killed in Britain,” 
with “Dr. Leach” as the name of the buyer, and £10 
as the price. Dr. Leach, at that time, was keeper of the 
Zoological department of the British museum, but it will 
be noticed that in this entry no mention is made as to 
the precise locality, nor can I ascertain when, or on what 
authority, the bird was first ticketed “ Norfolk.” From 
the fact, however, that in every other known instance, 
this species has occurred on our coast late in autumn 
or during the winter months (a rule which pertains in 
other counties as well, according to Yarrell, who adds, 
“the male has never been killed here in the plumage 
assumed during the breeding season that I am aware 
of”), I am inclined to believe that this, after all, is no 
exception, and, even if “killed in Britain,” that Norfolk 
cannot fairly reckon it amongst its local rarities. 
* “Catalogue of the British Birds in the collection of the 
British museum.” By George Robert Gray, F.L.S., &e., 1863, p. 134. 
