74 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



regards Dorsetshire, it can only be included in our 

 catalogue as a rare straggler. Stokes, the Poole 

 gunner, shot one at Poole, November 12, 1839, and 

 another in 1849. A third, shot on the banks of 

 the Wareham river in May 1869, is in the posses- 

 sion of Mr. H. Panton of Wareham. These are the 

 only three instances of its occurrence in this county 

 of which I have any note. 



FAM. OTIDID^E. 



GEEAT BUSTARD. Otia tarda, L. 



Yarrell, iii. p. 193 ; Harting, p. 41 ; Dresser, viii. p. 369 ; 

 Seebohm, ii. p. 581 ; I Ms List, p. 153 ; Pultejiey's List, p. 6. 



The Great Bustard, like the Crane, was also a 

 resident at no very remote period in Great Britain. 

 Pulteney, writing in 1813, says: "The Bustard is 

 now becoming very scarce even in Wiltshire ; a few 

 stragglers make their appearance now and then about 

 Woodyates and Ashmore Downs ; single birds have 

 been killed in Langton parish, in Studland, and 

 elsewhere." The late Sir William Oglander is said 

 to have shot three on the same day. The Rev. W. 

 Chafin, in the second edition of his "Anecdotes of 

 Cranboum Chace," published in 1818, thus refers to 

 his meeting with a flock of Bustards in 1751 : "I 

 was shooting Dotterels near Winterslow Hut, when 

 the report of my gun disturbed twenty-five Bustards, 

 which flew away quietly over the hill called Southern 



