CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF SUFFOLK. Hi 



Order IV. Grallatores. 



Fam. Otidid^i. 



Great Bustard, Otis tarda, L. 



S. and W. Cat. 35. Still (1824) breeds in the open parts 

 of Suffolk, though become much scarcer than formerly. — 

 Spald. List, xxxvii. 



East Suffolk. 



3. A female shot off Martlesham Bridge about 1815, seen by Mr. 

 Moor and believed by him to be the last seen in the neighbourhood (E. 

 J. Moor MS. and in Z. 2nd S., 2024, who long kept a feather of the bird). 

 Sir Robert Harland had a stuffed specimen which he told the Rev. F. B. 

 Zineke had been shot in his time in the parish of Wherstead, " not more 

 therefore, though possibly less than ninety years ago " (F. B. Zineke in 

 Suff. Chron., May 31, 1884). 



West Suffolk. 



7. Sir T. Browne had a cock Bustard sent him, April 30, 1681, " from 

 beyond Thetford" i.e. from Suffolk, as he writes from Norwich, (Sir T. 

 Browne's Works i., 311 Ed. Wilkin). In the spring of 1814 five birds were 

 seen by Mr.G. Graves betweeen Thetford and Brandon; from which neigh- 

 bourhood he received a single egg in 1819 (Graves' Brit. Om. iii., Lond. 

 1821). A nest discovered in 1832 on a warren near Thetford, the female 

 took off her young safely; Prof. Newton ascertained from Mr. Salmon who 

 saw the young birds that the nest was in a field of rye; on the same place 

 a male and two females were seen the same year (J. D. Hoy in Loudon's 

 Mag. N. H. vi., 1833, 150, and Salmon u. s. ix. (1836), 528 ; Stevenson, 

 B. of N. ii. 5; see also Bree in Field Nov. 1867). Lord Albemarle 

 informed Mr. Lubbock that his keeper found a Bustard many years ago 

 sitting on her nest in a pea-field at Elveden ; both eggs were placed 

 under a hen, and the young, both males, long kept in confinement; 

 the mother just escaped being caught by a cast net (Lubbock's 

 Fauna of Norfolk, 66, Ed. 1879). A female obtained from Elveden 

 in 1815; now in the Norwich Museum (Stev. B. of N. ii., 32-3). A male 

 seen, and a few feathers picked up in Feb. 1876 at Hockwold in Norfolk, 

 by Prof. Newton, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., and others (H. M. Upcber in 

 Field April 8, 1876 and in Z. 2nd S., 4882); it remained there about a 

 fortnight; and Prof. Newton was informed that it crossed into Suffolk 

 at Lakenheath ; it was also said to have been seen at Eriswell.* 

 In the beginning of the present century, visitors at Euston and other 

 great houses in the neighbourhood of Thetford used to make up parties 



* A bird was seen in August 1873 by doubt that it was a Bustard (Hewlett in 



two gentlemen and some labourers on the Field Aug. 16, 1873, quoted in Z. 2nd 



Wangford and Lakenheath Warrens; from S., 3692). 

 their description Mr. Howlett had no 



