10 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



Swaffham tract the drove formerly consisted of, at least, 

 twenty-seven birds, as the Rev. Henry Dugmore, of 

 Beachamwell, informs me that he perfectly remembers 

 (although he cannot recall the exact date*) riding on 

 one occasion, at Westacre, in company with the late Rev. 

 Robert Hamond, and, when walking their horses across 

 the open country, the whole drove of twenty-seven 

 bustards flew by them within fifty or sixty yards. Mr. 

 Scales, also, in the same locality once saw twenty-three 

 together ; and Mr. Hamond, of High House, Westacre, 

 can recollect this drove as numbering twenty-two birds. 

 There can be little doubt, therefore, if earlier information 

 were available, it would be found that in strength this 

 drove was by no means inferior to that which at the same 

 time frequented the other tract. Again, from twenty- 

 three or twenty-two, this drove subsequently decreased 

 to seventeen or sixteen, then to eleven, at which number 

 Mr. Hamond remembers it long stood, and finally 

 dwindled to five and two ; all accounts agreeing in this, 

 that the last remaining birds were hens only. The 

 cause of this diminution has already been briefly stated 

 in the " Introduction " to this work (vol. i., pp. li., lii.) 

 It may be, however, convenient to repeat here more 

 fully that the hen bustard nearly always laid her eggs 

 in the winter-sown corn, which in former days was, 

 almost without exception, rye sown broadcast after the 

 old fashion. As the mode of tillage improved, wheat 



there were visited by birds of the opposite sex from the other 

 locality ; but this is not very likely to have been the case, as it is 

 pretty nearly certain that at the time when the presence of the 

 cocks in the Swaffham tract was most desirable there were none 

 left in the neighbourhood of Thetford. 



* Mr. Gould, in his " Birds of Great Britain," records this same 

 incident, quoting from a letter addressed to the Eev. John 

 Fountaine by Mr. Henry Dugmore, and though the date is 

 not given, it is said to have been " as far back as 1820." 



