364 «TRUTHrONlD,E. 



seen on our South Downs." Ray and Willugliby mention 

 Royston Heath as a pLace frequented in their time by this 

 species ; and formerly these birds were plentiful in the open 

 tracts about Newmarket Heath, and till within a few years 

 single individuals have occasionally been seen in that neigh- 

 bourhood. Among other references to Cambridgeshire, I 

 may mention that in January 1 830 a young male was shot 

 on Shelford Common, and passed into the collection of Mr. 

 Henson, and in December 1832, a specimen was killed at 

 Caxton, and is preserved in the Museum of the Philosophical 

 Society at Cambridge. A correspondent in the Magazine 

 of Natural History, vol. vi. p. 513, says that the late Duke 

 of Queensberry had three Bustards pinioned on his lawn at 

 Newmarket ; and J. Westall, Esq. had one for a long time 

 in his garden at Risby, in Suffolk. The authors of the 

 Catalogue of the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk, published in 

 1827 in the fifteenth volume of the Transactions of the Lin- 

 nean Society, say, " these noble birds still continue to breed 

 in some of the open parts of both counties, though they are 

 become much scarcer than formerly. The places most fre- 

 quented by them are, Westacre in the former county, and 

 Tcklingham in the latter. At both places they are carefully 

 preserved by the proprietors. In the summer of 1819, nine- 

 teen were observed together at Westacre. We have twice 

 seen a male Bustard in the neighbourhood of Burnham. It 

 suffered itself to be approached to about the distance of a 

 hundred yards, then walked deliberately a few paces, and 

 took wing without the least difficulty. In flying it moved 

 its wings slowly, more like a Heron than one of the Galli- 

 naceous tribe. Mr. Hardy of Norwich has more than once 

 succeeded in domesticating this species." In a note at the 

 foot of page 197 in Mr. Bennett's edition of White's Sel- 

 borne, it is stated, " that two bijds of this kind, male and 

 female, have been kept in the garden ground belonging to 



