368 



STRUTHIONID.E. 



ning of December till March, when they again divide and 

 disperse. 



The Great Bustard is found in Spain, Provence, Italy, 

 Dalniatia, the Levant, and, according to M. Temminck, on 

 the plains of Greece. The Russian naturalists Avho accom- 

 panied the expedition from their own country to the Cau- 

 casus, say, this bird is found in winter at the foot of the 

 mountain, and in the vicinity of the river Don. 



So much of the natural history of the Great Bustard is 

 included in the various quotations and notices already insert- 

 ed, that little remains to be added. These birds are poly- 

 gamous, the males only attending the females till the latter 

 begin their task of incubation. The female lays two or three 

 eggs in a depression on the bare ground. The eggs are olive- 

 brown in colour, sparingly and indistinctly blotched with 

 greenish broccoli-brown : length two inches eleven lines, by 

 two inches two lines in breadth. The birds feed on green 

 corn, grasses, trefoil, and other vegetables ; are said to kill 

 and eat small mammalia, and from their partiality to marshy 

 ground, I have no doubt they also devour small reptiles. In 

 the summer they conceal themselves in standing corn, gene- 

 rally wheat or rye, and later in the season, in large fields of 

 high turnips ; they also frequent chalk pits when they are partly 

 overgrown with bushes or rank vegetation. As an article of 

 food, the flesh of the Bustard is highly esteemed, and ]Mr. 

 Gould says that on the Continent, the bird is frequently to 

 be seen exposed in the markets for sale. About the year 

 1817 or 1818, I remember to have seen a pair of Great 

 Bustards, male and female, and very fine specimens, exposed 

 for sale by Mr. Townsend, the poulterer, in Charles-street, 

 St. James's Square. These birds were sold for twelve 

 guineas, and were preserved by Mr. Leadbeater for the 

 purchaser. These were the only examples of the Great 

 Bustard I remember to have seen exposed for sale in the 



