THE GREAT BUSTARD. 375 



accuracy of the statement, he took much pains to ascer- 

 tain the truth by dissecting several adult males, and found 

 no peculiarity of structure a result which was also arrived 

 at by Professor Owen, who dissected one with a view of 

 obtaining a preparation of the supposed pouch for the 

 Museum of the College of Surgeons. A paper by Mr. 

 Yarrell,* read before the Linnean Society since the publi- 

 cation of his admirable work on Ornithology, contains 

 many other interesting particulars respecting this bird, to 

 which the reader is referred. 



Bustards have been seen in England at various intervals 

 during the last eighty or a hundred years, sometimes in 

 small flights and sometimes as solitary specimens, more 

 frequently in Norfolk than in any other county; but 

 they have ceased to breed in this country. I lately 

 met a gentleman in Norfolk who well recollected the 

 time when Bustards were to be met with in that 

 county. They were occasionally seen in the middle of 

 the large uninclosed plains with which Norfolk formerly 

 abounded, and in such situations he had himself seen 

 them. The last occasion was some time about the year 

 1825, when he once or twice had a shot at one, but could 

 not get near enough to bring it down. When disturbed 

 they moved off rapidly, employing both their feet and 

 wings, rising heavily, but at an angle so acute that they 

 advanced perhaps a hundred yards before they attained 

 the height of a man. When once on the wing, they flew 

 swiftly. They formerly bred in the parish of Deepdale, 

 and he could himself recollect an instance when an 

 attempt was made to rear some in captivity from the eggs, 

 but failed. 



* Lin. Trans, vol. xxi. p. 155. 



