THE GREAT BUSTARD . 237 
his bill by pinching their heads, and then swallowed them whole, 
even when of considerable size. It was easy to observe a large 
mouse going down his throat, making a moving tumour till it 
came to the turn of the neck; it then moved backwards, and al- 
though out of sight, yet its progress was traced by the feathers 
between the shoulders separating, and closing again as soon as it 
passed into the gizzard. He was fond of worms, and while the gar- 
dener was digging, stood by him and looked out for them. He 
ate the buds of flowers, and particularly of roses; also the sub- 
stance of cucumbers, but not the outside. From these observa- 
tions the Bustard is evidently fitted more particularly to live on 
animal food.’ 
The average number of Bustards annually supplied to Chevet, 
the great game-dealer of the Palais Royal, Paris, about fifty years 
ago, was six. Its principal place of resort in France was the wild 
country between Arcis-sur-Aube and Chalons, in most other dis- 
tricts it was as little known as with us. 
Several authors of undoubted veracity state that the adult male 
Bustard has a capacious pouch, situated along the fore part of the 
neck, the entrance of which is under the tongue, capable of hold- 
ing several quarts of water—it is said not less thanseven. Montagu, 
in his Ornithological Dictionary, expresses his doubt whether the 
bird could carry as much as seven quarts, or fourteen pounds, 
while flying ; he admits, however, that ‘it is large, as may be seen 
in the Leverian Museum’; and he adds, ‘ that it is only discover- 
able in adults, as it is most likely intended for the purpose of 
furnishing the female and young in the breeding with water.’ Of 
this pouch a figure is given by Yarrell, copied from Edwards’ 
Gleanings of Natural History, and there inserted on the authority 
of Dr. James Douglas, the discoverer. Some doubts having arisen 
in Mr. Yarrell’s mind as to the accuracy of the statement, he took 
much pains to ascertain the truth by dissecting several adult 
males, and found no peculiarity of structure—a result which was 
also arrived at by Professor Owen, who dissected one with a view 
of obtaining a preparation of the supposed pouch for the Museum 
of the College of Surgeons. A paper by Mr. Yarrell,! read before 
the Linnean Society since the publication of his admirable work 
on Ornithology, contains many other interesting particulars res- 
pecting this bird, to which the reader is referred. 
Bustards have been seen in England at various intervals during 
the last eighty or a hundred years, sometimes in small flights and 
sometimes as solitary specimens, more frequently in Norfolk than 
in any other county, but they have ceased to breed in this country. 
I lately met a gentleman in Norfolk who well recollected the time 
when Bustards were to be met with in that county. On the lands 
1 Lin. Trans., vol. xxi. Pp. 155. 
