GREAT BUSTARD. 



and that gentleman having taken the trouble of tracing 

 its history, ascertained that this specimen was killed at 

 Dersingham, near Castle Rising, in Norfolk, on the 

 28th of the preceding January.* Later in the same 

 year (1838), another specimen, also a female, was killed 

 at Lexham, near Swaffham,f and sent to Mr. Knight, of 

 Norwich, to be preserved for the late Mr. F. W. Keppel. 

 This bird was found on dissection to contain an egg 

 nearly ready for exclusion, and when examined, in the 

 flesh, by Mr. J. H. Gurney and others, had the down 

 under the breast feathers suffused with a most delicate 

 rose coloured tint, which, according to Yarrell, was 

 also observed in the Dersingham bird, and, if looked 

 for, will probably be found in all specimens. It may 

 even still be open to doubt whether this was really the 

 last killed in England deserving the name of a British 

 bustard, since in Mr. Dowell's MS. notes I find the 

 following brief but important entry : " A great bustard 

 was killed by Mr. Woods, of Morston, about 1837, and 

 was sent to Lord Charles Townshend." On further 

 enquiry, that gentleman's son, Mr. W. Gr. Woods writes, 

 under date of March 20th, 1865 : " The great bustard I 

 took to Lord C. Townshend, about twenty-four years 

 since ; it was a female, but whether young or old I don't 

 know. I never heard of its being seen there before. It 

 was killed in autumn." Mr. Dowell, who, I believe, 

 made the entry in his note book from a verbal statement 



* Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden, also confirms this 

 account in a recent letter, and adds that having heard of this 

 specimen, he at once proceeded to Cambridge with the hope of 

 securing it for the Saffron Walden Museum, but Mr. Borrer had 

 already purchased it. 



f This is the same bird recorded in the "Annals of Natural 

 History" for 1838 (vol. i., p. 334) ; and again in 1839, in vol. iii. of 

 the same journal, p. 141. 



