GREAT BUSTARD. 549 



of Wressill and Lekinfield in Yorkshire " ; included among 

 the articles for principal feasts we find the following : 

 " Item, Bustardes for my Lordes owne Mees at Pryncipall 

 Feestes Ande noon outher tyme Except my Lordes comaund- 

 ment be otherwyse " ; but no price is attached, as in the 

 case of other birds mentioned. 



It is much to be regretted that almost all the records 

 of the existence in Yorkshire of so fine and conspicuous a 

 bird should date subsequently to its extinction, the precise 

 period of which is uncertain ; although there is reason to believe 

 that the last bird was seen at Foxholes, near Scarborough, 

 about the year 1835, and it is somewhat remarkable that 

 there should be only two published contemporary allusions to 

 its presence in the county in the eighteenth century. These 

 were by Marmaduke Tunstall, and a writer in the " Sporting 

 Magazine " ; probably this want of record may be explained 

 by the very abundance of the species. Even the records 

 that exist are derived from memory, or based upon hearsay 

 statements. 



The materials available for treating of the past history of 

 Yorkshire Bustards consist of Marmaduke Tunstall's MS., 

 dated 1784, contained in Fox's "Synopsis," p. 82 ; a paragraph, 

 dated October 1792, in the " Sporting Magazine " ; Arthur 

 Strickland's account given in Allis's Report on the Birds of 

 Yorkshire, in 1844 ; notes by Henry Woodall of North 

 Dalton, and E. H. Hebden of Scarborough, contributed to 

 Morris's " British Birds " in 1854 ; articles in the Zoologist 

 for 1870 (pp. 2063, 2102, 2103) ; a letter from Sir Charles 

 Anderson of Lea, to the late John Cordeaux, dated I4th 

 December 1874 ; letters to Mr. W. Eagle Clarke from Mr. 

 Thomas Boynton, late of Ulrome, now of Bridlington, Sir 

 C. W. Strickland of Hildenley, Professor Newton, and Mr. 

 J. W. Woodall of Scarborough ; letters from Mr. W. H. St. 

 Quintin of Scampston, and the Rev. G. D. Armitage, written 

 in March 1902, and articles in the Field of 6th and 27th 

 March 1897, by Mr. J. E. Harting and Mr. St. Quintin. From 

 such of these materials as have been published, the numerous 

 statements given in books have been compiled. Of the early 



