Lost British Birds. 13 



destroyed, for the gunners, to unload their punt guns, 

 would sometimes fire at and kill ten or twelve at a shot. No 

 wonder, then, if the avocets, thus constantly persecuted, 

 gradually became scarce." 



A straggler occasionally comes to our shores and is im- 

 mediately shot. Those who take pleasure in the possession 

 of such remains as birds' feathers, bones and egg-shells, are 

 always glad to secure an avocet. 



V. GREAT BUSTARD Otis tarda. About the best history 

 we have of the Great Bustard, as a British species, is con- 

 tained in Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk, and occupies the 

 first forty pages of the second volume of that excellent work. 

 About the bustard itself not much is to be learnt from this, 

 or from any other book on British birds. Strange to say, 

 that when this grand bird inhabited our country, it was 

 never discovered whither it betook itself on its annual dis- 

 appearances from its favourite breeding resorts ; whether to 

 Spain or Africa, or only to some other part of Great Britain. 



