142 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIRE. 



been unable to discover any record of the actual occurrence of 

 the Bustard in Oxfordshire, the statement in Morris' Kistory of 

 British Birds being- erroneous ; but a specimen in the possession 

 of Mr. W, P. King-, of Lower Heyford, boug-ht by him some 

 forty years ago at a Mr. Bates' sale at Middleton Stoney [in 

 lit.), was probably obtained in the county a long while ago. 



THE LITTLE BUSTARD. 



Otis tetrax. 



\ao 



The Little Bustard, a rare visitor to England, generally in 

 the winter^ has been procured in Oxfordshire in three or four 

 instances. A female shot in November, 1835, by Mr. Aid- 

 worth, a farmer at Garsington, and then in his possession, is 

 recorded by the Messrs. Matthews, who also mention another, 

 on the authority of the Rev. H. Roundell, which was said to 

 have been killed on Denton Common in December, 1830 (Zoo- 

 logist, p. 2600). Mr. William Hewet, of Beading, gave the 

 Rev. F. O. Morris information of one shot on a farm called 

 English, between Ipsden and Nettlebed, in 1849 {History of 

 British Birds, vol. iv), and the Rev. Murray A. Mathew in 

 ihe Zoologist (p. 6780) has recorded the occuri-ence of a young 

 male shot near Oxford in October, 1859, which, as he recently 

 informed me, he examined in the flesh. 



THE STONE-CURLEW. 



(Edknemus scolopax. 



The Stone-Curlew, Thicknee, Norfolk or Great Plover, 

 as it has been variously termed, is a summer visitor, but of 

 only very local distribution. Its favourite haunts are sheep 

 downs, heaths, and open stony arable land^sueh a country 

 as that found in parts of the north-west of the county, about 

 Burford, and on the chalk hills in the south — but I am not 

 aware of its breeding in more than one locality in Oxfordshire 

 at the present day. The Burford Downs are now entirely 



