3860 “ Recent Occurrence of the Great Bustard in Wilts.’ 
when quite a large body came over: by some said to have been 
frightened away from France, owing to the heavy firing during the 
Franco-German war; by others, and with more probability, con- 
jectured to have been driven from their usual haunts by an exception- 
ally cold winter. Whether this body arrived in detachments, or 
whether they came in one large pack, is uncertain; but if the latter 
they must very soon have dispersed over a considerable area, for 
some were obtained in Devonshire, some in Somerset, some in 
Middlesex, some in Northumberland, and no less than seven found 
their way to Salisbury Plain, to the parishes of Maddington, 
Shrewton, Market Lavington, and Berwick St. James, as I have 
fully detailed elsewhere (Birds of Wiltshire, p. 861). 
Previous to this immigration of Great Bustards into Wiltshire 
none had been seen in the county for fifteen years, and then but a 
single bird was observed and captured in the neighbourhood of 
Hungerford, in the early part of January, 1856, of which I have 
also given particulars (Birds of Wiltshire, p. 358). 
Since 1871 there have been occasional stragglers in various parts 
of England, notably in the winter of 1879-80, when nine specimens 
were captured, viz., one in Essex, two in Jersey, one in Cornwall, 
three in Kent, one in Cambridgeshire, and one in Dorset, the greater 
part of which were recorded to be females, and one only pronounced 
to be a male: but none of these were observed in Wilts. Between 
1880 and the beginning of the present winter I am not aware that 
the Great Bustard has put in any appearance within the British 
Isles: but now, during the remarkably cold weather which we have 
experienced this winter, and which seems to have extended pretty 
generally over the Continent of Europe, another arrival of Great 
Bustards has taken place, and no less than seven specimens have 
been taken in as many counties: for they, too, if they came over in 
a body, as is probable, very soon scattered over the country, and 
between December 20th and February 7th a single individual of 
this fine species has been taken in Essex, in Carmarthenshire, in 
Hampshire, in Sussex, in Norfolk, in Suffolk, as well as in Wilts, as 
has been fully reported by Mr. Harting in the Zoologist and in the 
Field. They were all females, not a male bird amongst them, and 
