GREAT BUSTARD. 31 



"Field" (January 19th, 1867): "As I was in my 

 boat after wild fowl, on the 7th instant, on Horsey- 

 mere, I observed a large bird flying towards me. 

 At first I mistook it for a heron, from its slow, 

 steady flight, but on its nearer approach, I found out 

 my mistake. The bird was coming directly oyer our 

 heads, but bent its course when some sixty or seventy 

 yards from us. We both fired, but the bird kept steadily 

 on its way till we lost sight of it. I could not imagine 

 what it was, never before having seen the great bustard 

 on the wing; still, the peculiar round shape of the 

 wing, jagged also at the edge, the neck, also, and head 

 so small in comparison with the body, struck me much, 

 and made me very anxious to get it. On the next two 

 days it was seen again stalking in the marshes, like an 

 over-grown turkey, but it would not allow any nearer 

 approach than one hundred yards before it flew quietly 

 away, taking, however, but short flights, for it seemed 

 more careful than wild. Having now no doubt that the 

 bird was the great bustard, I have been on the look 

 out ever since, but when once the snow came the bird 

 absconded." I may here mention, that in April, 1866, 

 a rumour reached me, through the Kev. C. Norris, 

 of Briston, of two very large and unknown birds "as 

 big as turkeys," having been seen by some gunners at 

 Wells-next-the-Sea, flying low over that district in a 

 westerly direction. On further enquiry I was unable 

 to elicit anything more definite than is here given, and 

 should have scarcely considered the incident worth 

 inserting, but for the fact that scarcely a week later I 

 read in the " Field " the notice of a bustard having been 

 observed in Lincolnshire (April 14th, 1866), as before 

 stated in the list of migratory specimens.* 



* The fact .that the great bustard is a bird possessing the power 

 of flight in a very high deejree is one which has been too frequently 

 overlooked by many English authors. If proof of this be wanted it 



