208 OTIDIDiE. 



Tuesday she was found dead in a ditch. On the 21st Feh- 

 ruary, Lord Lilford sent another hen : it was a very stormy 

 day, so I dared not turn her out after the fate of No. 1, but 

 shut her up in a little hut of hurdles and straw, which I had 

 had built for No. 1, but which she would not take advantage 

 of. The next morning the male was not far from the hut, 

 and the keeper went down to let the female out, but he flew 

 away. In the afternoon he passed over the field, but did not 

 alight, and went on to Stockwold ; thence to Eriswell and 

 Elveden, where he was seen in the park. This is the last 

 place where I can hear any tidings of him " (Zool. s.s. 

 p. 4882).* On the 29th March of the same year a Bustard, 

 weighing 9f lbs., was shot near Stronsay, in Orkney ('The 

 Field,' April 8th, 1876). 



In the winter of 1879-1880, besides the Bustard already 

 noted as obtained in Cornwall, one was recorded from Jersey, 

 one from Essex, one from Cambridgeshire, and one from 

 Dorsetshire, all females ; also three from Kent, one of which 

 was a male weighing 16 lbs. A similiar visitation occurred 

 in the northern and central provinces of France (Zool. 1880, 

 p. 252), and was attributed by the naturalists and sportsmen 

 of that country to the inclement weather which prevailed at 

 that season. 



The Great Bustard is now a rare straggler to the southern 

 portions of Sweden, where it was formerly a partial resident, 

 and its occurrences in Denmark, Holland, and Belgium are 

 merely accidental ; but in Northern and Central Germany, 

 especially on open plains, such as those about Leipsic, it is 

 still a resident, excepting in severe winters. In France its 

 head-quarters used to be in the province of Champagne, but 

 the Editor has recently been informed that as a resident 

 species it is now extirpated, although examples are annually 

 obtained in the country. In the Spanish Peninsula the 

 Great Bustard is still abundant in suitable localities, and 

 Mr. C. A. Nicholson, of Balrath Kells, Co. Meath, has con- 

 tributed the following details : — 



* A more detailed account, by Messrs. Halting and Upcher, and illustrated by 

 woodcuts, appeared in 'Tbe Field ' of April 8tb, 1876. 



