LITTLE BUSTARD. 373 



year, 1839, one specimen was killed at Boythorp, Sledmere 

 Wolds, near Scarborough, of which Mr. Hawkridge sent me 

 notice. Mr. Selby has recorded two instances of the occur- 

 rence of this rare bird in Northumberland, which becomes 

 still more rare on proceeding northward, and T. M. Grant, 

 Esq. of Edinburgh, has supplied me with a notice of one 

 killed near Montrose, in December 1833, which is the only 

 one, I am aware of, that has been killed in Scotland. Pro- 

 fessor Nilsson ranks the Little Bustard among the rarest of 

 the occasional strasfoflers to Sweden. It has been recorded 

 as killed in Lapland, on the authority of Acerbi, but the 

 description proves that Acerbi"'s bird was the Wood Grouse.* 



Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says that the Little Bus- 

 tard is frequent in the southern and south-western parts of 

 Russia, migrating in small flocks, and is found also on the 

 deserts of Tartary. It is a rare bird in Germany, more com- 

 mon in France, and is found in Spain, Provence, Italy, and 

 Sardinia, where M. Vieillot says it remains all the year. It 

 is found in North Africa, Turkey, and Greece. Specimens 

 of the Little Bustard have been sent to the Zoological 

 Society from Erzeroom by Keith Abbott, Esq. and by 

 Messrs. Dickson and Ross ; the latter gentlemen in their 

 notes state that this bird is very common in ploughed fields 

 on the skirts of the marsh. M. Menetries, in his Catalogue, 

 observes, that this species is very common at the foot of 

 Mount Caucasus, and particularly so towards the shores of 

 the Caspian Sea. Near Baiku, this author says, I saw in 

 December immense flocks of these birds going in the direc- 

 tion from east to west ; of all those seen, or of those procured 

 and examined, not a single male had any black on the throat. 



The nest is on the ground, among herbage which is suffi- 

 ciently high to hide the bird ; the eggs vary in number, 

 according to diflferent authors, from three to five ; the length 

 * Travels through Sweden, Finland, and Lapland, vol. ii. page 229. 



