GREAT BUSTARD. 33 



it was obtained, lie understood, by his cousin, the Rev. 

 G. R. Leathes, as long ago as the year 1815, from Parker, 

 then a gunsmith at Bury St. Edmund's, who asserted 

 that it had been shot by a gamekeeper at Elveden, in 

 Suffolk. If so, Mr. A. Newton believes it was killed 

 before his father became possessed of that estate, and 

 that one Cornel was most likely the slayer of it. 



In Mr. Hamond's collection at Westacre High- 

 house,'* are a male and female, in one large case, 

 of which the male bird, as Mr. Hamond informs me, 

 came from Spain,f and the female, as I learn from Mr. 

 Robert Elwes, is the one (before mentioned) shot by 

 his father, Mr. Henry Elwes, at Congham, in 1831, and 

 was stuffed by the Rev. H. Dugmore. In the same house 

 are also four bustard's eggs, of which one is marked 

 "Ash Breck, Westacre, 1836, taken by Richard Hamond." 

 The three others are all believed to have been taken at 

 Westacre at least thirty years ago. 



In Mr. Robert Elwes' collection at Congham House, J 

 near Lynn, is by far the finest series of Norfolk, or even 

 British bustards anywhere to be seen, comprising in 



* Nearly all the rarer birds in this fine collection were procured 

 either in the Orkneys by the B/ev. Henry Dugmore (by whom they 

 were also mounted), or in the Low Countries by Mr. J. D. Hoy. 



f The pair of bustards, preserved at Weeting Hall, Norfolk, 

 were brought from Spain, as Mr. A. Newton was informed, by the 

 late General Angerstein. 



J This very perfect collection of British birds, in a wonderful 

 state of preservation, was formed by the late Rev. Robert Hamond, 

 and most of the specimens were stuffed and mounted by himself. 

 It was for many years in the possession of his sister, the late Miss 

 Hamond, of Swaffham, at whose death it passed into the hands of 

 its present owner ; but, unfortunately, there is a want of authentic 

 records as to the locality of most of the rarer specimens, though 

 some were probably obtained in this county. The orioles, wood- 

 chats, a fine purple heron, and others, as Mr. Dugmore informs me, 

 came from Holland. 



