GREAT BUSTARD. ' gg^ 



shire wolds, wliicli were for a long time a favourite locality 

 for them. Mr. Denny, of Leeds, sent me word that a towns- 

 man of his remembers seeing Bustards on the wolds at the 

 beginning of the present century. About the year 1817, 

 eight Bustards were seen together, in the shooting season, in 

 a large turnip field, in the parish of South Dalton. Within 

 the last fifteen years they were known to breed on a wold, 

 near Malton, and Mr. Hawkridge sent me word that about 

 fourteen years since one was shot on a wold near Scar- 

 borough. 



Of this bird, in Scotland, Dr. Fleming observes, that it 

 seems to have been found in the days of Bocce ; Sibbald, 

 however, seems to view it as rare in his day ; and it is now 

 reduced to the rank of a straggler. One was shot in 1803 

 in Murrayshire, by William Young, Esq. of Boroughhead. ' 



M. Nilsson says the Great Bustard is of rare appearance 

 in Sweden ; but has been observed in spring. It is found 

 m Russia, and Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, mentions that 

 It IS frequent over all the desert of Tartary, and beyond 

 Lake Baikal. It is a solitary bird, but collects into small 

 flocks at the time of its southern migration, and winters 

 about Astracan. 



In Germany, these birds are numerous, but very difficult 

 to approach ; the sportsmen of that country use rifles in the 

 pursuit, and practice as many devices to get within shot as 

 are employed by the Highlanders of Scotland, when stalkin<r 

 red deer. The Bustard is a rare bird in Holland. 



In France, according to M. Vieillot, the Great Bustard 

 naturally very wild, prefers champaign and stony countries' 

 far from any habitations, and it only approaches villages when 

 deep snows interfere with its means of subsistence ^they are 

 in families in autumn, and later in the season these broods 

 unite, forming flocks, consisting of from forty to two hundred 

 individuals. In this state they may be seen from the be-in- 



