100 Great Bustards. 



Great Massingham Heath for incubation ; their 

 eggs consisted of two pairs and a single one; 

 these were taken away under the impression, 

 possibly a mistaken one, that there was no male 

 bird, and that, therefore, they were good for 

 nothing. A small flock of hen bustards, including 

 the parents of the eggs mentioned, continued to 

 occupy the country round Swaffham for some years 

 longer, but there is no record of a cock having 

 been seen, and the actual date of the death of the 

 last survivor is not known with certainty, but was 

 probably in the year 1838, though "several persons 

 believe, and with some show of reason, that a bird, 

 or even two birds, lingered on till 1843 or 1845." 



Thus, as Mr. Stevenson observes, the failure of 

 " heirs male " was the final cause of the extinction 

 of this noble indigenous species, as is so often the 

 case in the human race with some great historic 

 name. The main cause of the diminution in the 

 number of bustards was, no doubt, primarily the 

 improved methods of agriculture, and the substitu- 

 tion of the drill for the old method of sowing 

 broadcast, on which followed the horse hoe, with 

 the result that ec every nest made by a bustard in 

 a wheat-field was sure to be discovered, perhaps in 

 time to avert instantaneous destruction from the 

 horses' feet or the hoe blades, perhaps (and this 

 probably much the more often), only when the 

 eggs had been driven over and smashed, and their 

 contents were pouring out on the ground. But even 

 in the first case, instantaneous destruction being 



