236 THE GREAT BUSTARD 
FAMILY OTIDIDE 
No hind toe. 
THE GREAT BUSTARD 
OTIS TARDA 
Head, neck, breast, and edge of the wing ash grey; on the crown a longitu- 
dinal black streak; bill with a tuft of elongated loose feathers on each 
side of the lower mandible; upper plumage reddish yellow, streaked 
transversely with black; lower whitish ; tail reddish brown and white, 
barred with black. Female—smaller, without a moustache, the streak on 
the crown fainter. Length nearly four feet. Eggs olive-brown, irregu- 
larly blotched with dull red and deep brown. 
THE Great Bustard was formerly not unfrequent in Britain, but 
of late years it has become so rare that it is now impossible to 
describe its habits on the testimony of a living eye-witness. In 
several parts of the Continent it is indeed still to be met with; 
but I find so many discrepancies in the various accounts which I 
have consulted, that it is hard to believe all the writers who de- 
scribe it to have had the same bird in view. Some of these the 
reader may examine for himself. 
The earliest mention of it which I find occurs in the Anabasis of 
Xenophon, who describes a plain or steppe near the Euphrates 
full of aromatic herbs, and abounding with Wild Asses, Ostriches, 
and Bustards (Otis). The latter, he says, ‘could be caught when 
any one came on them suddenly, as they fly to a short distance 
like Partridges and soon give in. Their flesh is delicious.’ Pliny’s 
description of the Bustard is very brief. He says it approaches 
the Ostrich in size; that it is called Avis tarda in Spain, Ofis in 
Greece ; its flesh is very disagreeable, in consequence of the strong 
scent of its bones.’ Our countryman Willughby, who wrote in 
the middle of the seventeenth century, gives a longer account. 
‘The Bustard has no hind claw, which is especially worthy of 
notice ; for by this mark and by its size it is sufficiently distin- 
guished from all birds of the tribe. It feeds on corn and the seeds 
of herbs, wild cabbage, leaves of the dandelion, etc. I have 
found in its crop abundance of the seeds of cicuta, with but a few 
grains of barley even in harvest-time. It is found on the plains 
near Newmarket and Royston, and elsewhere on heaths and plains. 
Bustards are birds of slow flight, and raise themselves from the 
ground with difficulty, on account of their size and weight ; hence, 
without doubt, the name tardu was given to them by the Latins. 
By the Scotch, on the authority of Hector Boethius, they are 
called Gustarde.’ 
M. Perrault, who wrote in 1676, gives an account of a tame 
Bustard which was kept for a while in summer in a garden, and 
died of cold in the winter. ‘He killed mice and sparrows with 
