236 THE GREAT BUSTARD 



FAMILY OTIDID.E 



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 hnd 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 {Oiis). 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, Otis 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 Giistardce.' 



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 



