96 Great Bustards. 



the warrens or " brecks " of Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 where it survived longer than in any other part of 

 the island; the moors of Haddingtonshire and 

 Berwickshire, the wolds of Yorkshire and Lincoln- 

 shire, Newmarket and Royston Heaths, on the 

 borders of Cambridgeshire, together with the 

 downs of Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Hamp- 

 shire, and Sussex. At the present time, though 

 no longer an inhabitant of the British Islands, it 

 is found in Europe, in Germany, and Russia, on 

 the steppes of the Danubian and Black Sea 

 districts, and in Spain. 



Among early references to this bird may be 

 noticed that of Hector Boece, or Boethius, a 

 Scottish historian, who, writing in 1526, says: 

 " We have, moreover, another foule in Mers, more 

 strange and uncouth than all those afore-mentioned, 

 called a Gustard, fully so great as a swanne, but in 

 colour of feathers and taste of fleshe little differing 

 from a Partriche; howbeit these byrdes are not 

 very common, neyther to be seen in all places." 

 In the Northumberland Household Book, 1512, 

 the following mention of them occurs: "Item. 

 Bustardes for my Lordes own mees at Principal 

 Feestes and non other tyme except my Lordes 

 Commandment be otherwyse"; from which it 

 would appear that they were highly valued, as 

 certainly was the case in the next century ; for 

 in Willoughby's Ornithology (1678) the following 

 passage occurs : "Though some discommend their 

 flesh, yet with us it is esteemed both delicate and 



