BUSTARD. 



P.I-STARD. 



re spread laterally, forming segment of a circle. Upper part of 

 the breast reddish-orange ; lower part, belly, and rent, white. Legs 

 bUck, covered with round scales. Iridea reddish-brown. The poe- 

 Maaion of a guUr poach by them birds, which was first recorded by 

 Dr. Douglass, <eeiiu to be a mistake, as Mr. Yarrell in dissecting a 

 male bustard has failed to detect this organ. The average length of 

 a male in 3 feet 8 inches. 



The female ha* the head and forepart of the neck of a deeper gray, 

 and without the moustaches. Back of the lower part of the neck 

 reddish-orange. The other part* of the plumage similar to that of 

 the other MX. Size seldom more than one-third of that of the male. 



Great Btuttrd (Olit tarda), femalr. 



The young at a month old are covered with a buff-coloured down, 

 barred upon the back, wings, and sides with black. 



With regard to its distribution. Scll.y nays, " It is found in some 

 provinces of France and in part* of Germany awl Italy. It is com- 

 mon in Russia and on the extensive plains of Tartary." Temminck 

 states that it inhabits some department* of France, of Italy, and 

 Germany : that it in lei's abundant towards the north than in the 

 south; and that r rely and accidentally found in Holland. 



Graves relates that the species is dispersed over the southern parts 

 of Europe, and the in nito parts of Africa, a 'I i- very 



abundant in some port ^ nd Portugal. In our own 



the increase of population and civilisation, followed by greater 

 demands on the land. and consequently by an extension of cultivated 

 surface, have so reduced the Bustards, that unless care bo taken to 

 preserve the few which remain, they will soon be numbered among 

 the other extinct species of our Fauna. The following are notices 

 of the old British localities of these noble birds. " They are called," 

 ays Willughby, "by the Scot* Giutardtr, as Hector BocthiuB witncs- 

 seth in them words : In March, a province of Scotland, are birds 

 bred, called in the vulgar dialect dutlardrt, the colour of whose 

 feathers and their flesh is not unlike the partn.lv.". l.ut the bulk of 

 their body exceeds the swans." The editor of the last edition ,.f 

 Pennant states that in Sir Robert Sihbald's time, they were found in 

 the Hera, bat that he believes that they are now extinct in Scotland. 

 Willughby also says (1678), "(hi Newmarket and Royston Heaths, 

 in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and elsewhere, in wastes and plains 

 they are found with us." Ray (1713) thus writes: "In campis 

 spatioeu circa Novum Mercatum (Newmarket) et Hoyston, oppida in 

 agro Cantabrigiensi. iuqne planitio, ut audio, Salisburiensi, et alil.i in 

 vaatuet apertu loci*, invenitur." In Brookes'* 'Ornithology' (1761) 

 the following passage occurs : "This 1'inl (the busin'l) is bred in 

 several part* of Europe, and particularly in Kngland, especially on 

 Salisbury Plain, Newmarket and Royston Heaths, in Cambridgeshire 

 and Suffolk ; for it delights in large op. , places. The flesh is in high 

 taieeni, and perhaps the more so because it is not very easy to come 

 at." Pennant says, "These birds inhabit mo-t of tl ..... |.. n countries 

 of the south and east parts of this island from Dorsetshire as far as 

 the Wolds ,n Yorkshire." 



The editor of the last edition (1312) observes that " the breed is 



now nearly extirpated, except on the Downs of Wiltshire, where it is 

 also very scarce. The figure of the male bird given by Graves is 

 said to hare been drawn from one taken alive on Salisbury P 

 1797. Montagu in hi* Dii-tionary ' (1M>2) says that in thin locality it 

 had become very raru from the great price given for the eggs and 

 young to hatch and rear in . pplcmetit ' 



he states that not one had been seen tl or three years 



previous. Gravel says that, in the spring of 1814, he saw fiv. 

 on the extensive plains between Thetford anrl Brandon, in Norfolk, 

 from which neighbourhood in 1819 he received a single egg, which 

 had been found in a large warren. lu the autumn of 1819, he adds, 

 a large male bird which had Ix'en surprised by a dog on Newmarket 

 Heath, was sold in Leadenhall Market for five guineas; and in the 

 same year, he continues, a female was captured under similar circum- 

 stances on one of the moors in Yorkshire. \V!.. n the mania for real 

 British specimens of bird* was prevalent, the bustards suffer, 

 a little. We know a collector who, about the year 181)3, had nine 

 dead bustards before him together : they came from Norfolk. In 

 1830 a young male was shot on Shelford < ' minion, in Cambridgeshire, 

 and in 1832 a specimen was killed at C'axtou in the same county. In 

 1843 one was shot in Cornwall on an open plain lie 1 .11 and 



the Lizard Point. It is very certain, from these notices, that this bird 

 is becoming every day more rare in England, and will probably soon 

 be wholly absent from its Fauna. 



With regard to its food Willughby says that the Bustard feeds 

 upon corn, seeds of herbs, colewort, dandelion leaves, &c. In the 

 stomach of one which he dissected he found a great quantity of 

 hemlock-seed, with three or four grains of barley, and that in 1 

 time. Brookes states that they feed upon frogs, mice, small 

 and different kinds of insects. Pennant make* their food to . 

 of corn and other vegetables, and those large earth-worm 

 appear on the Downs before nun-rising in the glimmer. M 

 states it to be green corn, the tops of turnips, and v 

 vegetables, as weU as worms; but adds, that they have been known 

 to eat frogs, mice, and young birds of the smaller kind, which they 

 can swallow whole. Turnip-tops are certainly a favourite article of 

 diet with these birds ; and we believe that the nine bustards above 

 mentioned owed their fate to their fondness for this vegetable being 

 laid in wait for at their feeding-time. Temminck says that their 

 nourishment consists very muoh of insects and worms, and also of 

 grain and seeds. 



The eggs of the Bustard, two in number generally, som. 

 three, are laid upon the bare ground, which is often a little boll 

 out by the female (occasionally, saya Selby, among clover, but more 

 frequently in corn-fields), early in the spring. They rather . 

 those of a turkey in sine, and their colour is a yellowisli-br -iwn, 

 inclining to oil-green, with slight darker variations. Time of incu- 

 bation four weeks. The young aa soon as hatched follow the parent, 

 but are incapable of flight for a long time. 



The extreme rapidity of their running, and the umvillingnem to 

 rise on the wing exhibited by these birds, have been the theme of 

 moat ornithologists. We have also many accounts of their being 

 coursed with dogs. The following is from Brook.- "'lit. 

 also bustards in France which frequent large open plains, particularly 

 near Chalons, where in the winter time there are great numbers of 

 them seen together. There is always one placed as a sentinel, at some 

 distance from the flock, which gives notice to the rest of any . 

 They raise themselves from the ground with great difficulty f, .. 

 run sometimes a good way, beating their 

 They take them with a hook baited with an nppl > or flesh. 

 times fowlers shoot them as they lie concealed 1.. lii' 

 or on a load of straw ; othei m with greyhounds, which 



often catch them before they are able to rise." Selby. who has 

 evidently had good opportunities of otwrvation, thus writes in his 

 'Illustrations:' " Although, in a stoite of confinement, the 1 

 becomes tolerably tame to those who are in the ] , din- 



it, yet it displays at all t lei-able ferocity towar ' 



and all attempts to continue the hived in thai 

 success. With respect to its habit* in the will : ,\,-. it 

 seldom to be approached within gun-shot ; invariably pel., tint; the 

 centre of the largest inclosure, where it walks slowly about, or 

 with the head rej wards upon the 1 bare part of its neck, 



and frequently \\l- drawn up. 1'pon being distiiil 



far from running in preference to flight (as has been often des. > 

 it rises upon the wing with great facility, and ilieswith n 

 and swiftness, usually to another haunt, whirl, will 

 the distance of six or seven miles. It has also been said that iu 

 former days when the |>ecics was of common occurrence, it was a 

 practice to run the young birds (before they v.. re able to tly) with 

 greyhounds. So far from tl, with the | 



remnant of the breed, the young birds upon being al lantly 



qmi olo* to the ground er as the young of the 



lapwing, golden plover, Ac., anil in that position are frequently 



by hand; ind 1 this is even the h ' female during 



incnbat ML" Selhy's remarks on its powers of flying are . 



by the liooke of Falconrie or Hawking' (I 1 



head of 'Other flights to the fielde called great flights,' at p. S;i, we 



find it thus written :" There is yet another kind of (light, (., the 



