132 The Great Bustard. 
modern days, viz., three hundred years since, the price it fetched 
proved it to be no very common fowl, for it figured in the list of 
game, provided at a feast in the Inner Temple Hall, at no less than 
ten shillings each, a large sum at that period, the third year of 
Philip and Mary: again, in 1712 an advertisement appeared in the 
Spectator, announcing in the market the seat of a deceased Baronet, 
containing in addition to fish ponds, canals, &e., “woods of large 
timber, wherein is game in great plenty, even to the Bustard and 
Pheasant :’” and I have now before me an autograph letter of the 
Duke of Northumberland, bearing date May 10th, 1753, addressed 
to Michael Ewen, Esq., of Milton Lislebon, on the verge of Salisbury 
Plain, thanking him very heartily for a fine bustard he had sent 
him, proving the bird at that date to be sufficiently rare to be sent 
as a present to a nobleman. 
But Wiltshire was always allowed to be the stronghold of the 
Great Bustard, and our wide downs, and especially Salisbury Plain, 
were known to be its favorite haunts, and they are described as 
such by most of our older Ornithologists. In 1667 Merrett notices 
that it was “taken on Newmarket Heath and about Salisbury.” 
In 1718 Ray thus describes its localities: “In campis spatiosis 
circa Novum Mercatum et Royston, oppida in agro Cantabrigiensi, 
inque planitie, ut audio, Salisburiensi, et alibi in vastis et apertis 
locis invenitur.” In 1771, Dr. Brookes says of it, “this bird is 
bred in several parts of Europe, and particularly in England, es- 
pecially on Salisbury Plain &c., for it delights in large open places; 
the flesh is in high esteem, and perhaps the more so, because it is 
not very easy to come at.”” In 1777 Gilbert White was told by a 
carter at a farm on the downs, near Andover, that twelve years 
previously he had seen a flock of eighteen of these birds, but that 
since that time he had only seen two, though Gilbert White’s 
correspondent, Pennant, would lead one to suppose them far more 
common, for he says “in autumn these are (in Wiltshire) generally 
found in large turnip fields near the downs, and in flocks of fifty 
or more.” 
Up to this point then, we may regard the Great Bustard, if not 
very numerous, (which from its size and its value it was not very 
a wa ian 5 
