wn Great Britain during the Nesting-season. 55 
It has certainly decreased of late years in several districts, and 
this apparently not owing to any cause that can be discovered. 
In the west of Ireland the same diminution has been noticed. 
In former times I am informed that the Quail was reckoned as 
one of the regular winter visitors on the west side of the sister 
island, but it has not been so much observed of late years. It is 
still considered to breed annually about Belfast, and in county 
Armagh I have myself heard its note during the breeding-season. 
The bird is probably better known in the north-east of Lreland 
than in any part of England or Scotland. 
If there is any difference, the range of the Quail seems to in- 
cline rather to the east side of Great Britain, as well as of Ireland, 
during the breeding-season. It seems to occur chiefly in the 
south of England during winter. 
Orts Tarpa (Linn.). Great Bustard. 
Provinces [II.] [{V.] [VIII.] [X.] 
Subprovinces (4), (5), (6), (10), (11), (12), (19), (22). 
Lat. 50°-55°. “Germanic” type. Not in Ireland. 
In former times the Great Bustard was well known as inha- 
biting the downs of the south of England, the heaths in a few of 
the eastern counties, and the wolds of Yorkshire. 
Its breeding-range included the counties of Wilts, Dorset 
(Rev. J. H. Austen), Hants, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cam- 
bridge, Lincoln, and Yorkshire. Montagu tells us that “these 
birds were formerly found even as far north as Scotland,” where, 
however, they were probably only accidental visitors. 
Even at the date of Montagu’s ‘Supplement’ (1813) the Bus- 
tard had nearly disappeared from the downs of Wiltshire. It 
seems to have lingered to a considerably later date in Suffolk 
and Norfolk, where some nests were found in 1882 and 1833 
(Loudon’s Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 150; vol. vil. p. 458; and 
vol. ix. p. 528). In Yorkshire the last egg was taken in 1816, 
and is now preserved in the museum at Scarborough. 
Obs.—An egg, which can be hardly anything else than that 
of the Little Bustard (Otis tetrax, Linn.), was obtained by the 
G 
