A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



194. Great Bustard. Otis tarda, Linn. 



Much has been written on the great 

 bustards of SuflFollc, but as this fine old county 

 family became extinct about 1830 it is pretty 

 certain that there is no one now living who 

 can claim a personal acquaintance with them, 

 and a writer in the twentieth century must 

 fall back on information previously published. 

 The history of the Norfolk and Suffolk 

 bustards has been most carefully recorded in 

 the Birds of l<!$rfolk (i. 1-42, and iii. 396- 

 407), and Dr. Babington [Catalogue, pp. 

 1 1 1—3) has taken great trouble to preserve a 

 record of the occurrences in this county. 

 This superb game bird had its headquarters 

 in the north-west on the warrens or brecks 

 about Elveden, Eriswell and Icklingham. 

 Mr. W. Bilson, for many years a bird-stuffer 

 at Bury, who was born in 1808 and died in 

 1894, well remembered the Icklingham 

 bustards, and on one occasion saw as many as 

 six at once. This would probably be about 

 1824. Only four specimens of the old native 

 race seem to be in existence, and none of 

 them remain in the county. There is one in 

 the Cambridge Museum from Icklingham ; 

 one in the Norwich Museum obtained at 

 Elveden in 1 8 15; one in the collection of 

 Mr. Lucas of Burgh in Norfolk, killed at 

 Eriswell about 1829 ; and one was for many 

 years at Riddlesworth Hall, which was killed 

 at Cavenham, and at the Riddlesworth sale in 

 1894 passed into a private collection. All 

 these are females. Dr. Babington mentions 

 also the particulars of four Suffolk eggs which 

 were intact when he wrote in 1886. After 

 the old race had become extinct Suffolk 

 remained for about forty years unvisited by 

 bustards, but in January, 1876, a fine male 

 appeared at Feltwell in Norfolk, where he 

 remained for a month and was subsequently 

 seen at Eriswell and Elveden (H. M. Upcher 

 in Zoologist, 1876, p. 4882, where full details 

 are given). During the winter of 1890— i 

 several hen bustards were killed in England, 

 one of them in Mildenhall Fen on 5 February, 

 1 89 1. Mr. Hewlett of Newmarket met a 

 fen-man with the bird in his hand and at 

 once purchased it. He mounted it and after- 

 wards sold it to Mr. Walter Rothschild of 

 Tring Park, in whose museum it still remains. 

 An attempt was made some ten years later to 

 re-establish the bustard on the Elveden estate 

 where seventeen birds imported from Spain 

 were turned down. The experiment un- 

 fortunately was not successful as the majority 

 of the birds disappeared, and in December, 

 1 90 1, only four remained, of which one had 

 a damaged wing (J. H. Gurney in Zoologist, 



1902, p. 84). Two of the birds strayed to 

 Finningham, where they were shot by a 

 keeper in June, 190 1, and though the shooter 

 was prosecuted and fined for killing game out 

 of season the mischief was done. These two 

 birds, a hen and a young cock, were pre- 

 sented to the Ipswich Museum. In the 

 autumn of 1902 one of the four survivors 

 was shot just over the Cambridgeshire border 

 and all hope of the birds increasing was at an 

 end, though a cock and hen were alive and 

 well in April, 1903, of which the hen had 

 laid two infertile eggs in 1902 (Mr. W. Hill). 



195. Little Bustard. Otis tetrax, Linn. 

 There is no reason to believe that this bird 



was ever anything but the rare visitant to 

 Britain that it is now. Nearly all the Suffolk 

 examples have been met with in autumn or 

 winter, but the only one obtained since the 

 ' seventies ' is a remarkable exception. This 

 was a fine male shot at Kessingland on 30 

 May, 1898, which was in perfect breeding 

 plumage, and in this respect unique as a 

 British specimen. An illustration reproduced 

 from a photograph with details will be found 

 in the Zoologist for 1899, p. 120. 



196. Stone-Curlew. (Edicnemus scolopax (S.G. 



Gmelin) 

 Locally, Culloo or Cullew. 

 A summer migrant arriving about the end 

 of March and still fairly common in those 

 parts of the county which were once the 

 haunt of the bustard. There are also some 

 on the commons and in the fields adjoining 

 the coast, and in May, 1901, a clutch of eggs 

 was found near Southwold. The two eggs 

 often differ a good deal in shape, one being 

 much rounder than the other, and this was 

 the case with a clutch remarkable for the 

 minute freckles on both eggs found near 

 Mildenhall in 1902. 'Many of the first 

 clutches are broken by harrowing and rolling. 

 It is a curious fact that keepers who have 

 excellent opportunities of observing these birds 

 state that they see them occasionally during 

 every month of the winter ' (Rev. F. C. R. 

 Jourdain). One was picked up alive near 

 Bury in November, 1902, apparently nipped 

 by the cold, but it soon recovered and was 

 eventually sent to an aviary in Yorkshire. In 

 January, 1889, one was shot at Barrow, and 

 as a note made at the time mentions that it 

 was in poor plumage and condition it may 

 have been a wounded bird. This bird is also 

 known as the great plover, Norfolk plover and 

 thick-knee. The large bright yellow eye is 

 very beautiful in the living bird, and indicates 

 the nocturnal habits of the species. 



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