124 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



Family Otidid^. 

 GREAT BUSTARD.— O/'/s tarda, LinD. 



A RARE visitant. Montagu states : ''In the winter 

 of 1798 one was killed near Plymouth in Devon- 

 shire, and two others the following year in the same 

 county" (Orn. Diet. 1802). In his Supplement, 

 the same writer supplies the additional information 

 that " One of this species shot in Devonshire in 

 1804, and taken to Plymouth market, was bought 

 by a publican for a shilling .... The landlord. .. . 

 had it dressed for the dinner of some riders. These 

 itinerant gentlemen being as ignorant as the natives, 

 of the prize set before them, and perceiving upon 

 dissection, the difference in the colour of the 

 pectoral muscle from the other part of the breast, 

 .... ordered it from the table. Some neighbouring 

 gentlemen happening to sup at the inn the evening 

 after, and hearing of the circumstance, desired they 

 might be introduced to this princely bird, and 

 partook of it cold at this repast." Dr. Elliot writes 

 to me, " We have one that was purchased in the 

 flesh in Plymouth Market at the beginning of the 

 century," Dr. Moore only refers to Montagu, 

 Bellamy hazards the suggestion, " formerly not 

 unfrequent on Dartmoor, but is now a questionable 

 resident " (Nat. Hist, of Devon, p. 209). On the 

 31st of December, 1851, a Great Bustard was shot 

 at Bratton Clovelly, and became the property of 

 Mr. J. G. Newton (Naturalist, 1852. p. 33). Mr. 



