Great Bustards. 99 



for young birds not full-grown, while in 1813 he 

 stated that he was informed by the shepherds that 

 they had not been seen for the last two or three 

 years in their favourite haunts on the Wiltshire 

 Downs. 



The actual date of the disappearance of the 

 bustard from its various haunts in this country 

 is not known except in the case of Yorkshire, 

 Norfolk, and Suffolk, in the former of which 

 counties it is believed that the last hen bird was 

 trapped on Sir W. Strickland's estate at Boynton, 

 near Bridlington, in 1832 or 1833. In Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, however, it managed to hold its own 

 in some numbers for a considerable time after it 

 was practically extinct in other parts, and, as it 

 found a most careful historian in the late Mr. 

 Stevenson, of Norwich, the whole of the facts of 

 its disappearance have been preserved and can be 

 found in that author's " Birds of Norfolk/' from 

 which we gather the following facts : 



Two " droves" existed, one having its head- 

 quarters in the open country round Swaffham, and 

 the other near Thetford. There is reason to 

 believe that a nest found on the borders of 

 Thetford Warren in the year 1832 was the last 

 known in Suffolk, and a single bird observed later 

 in the summer of the same year on Icklingham 

 Heath was the sole survivor in that once noted 

 locality. The Norfolk birds were now the last of 

 the indigenous race, but they did not long survive. 



In the spring of 1833 three females resorted to 

 H 2 



