BUSTAED SHOOTING. 115 



have fled before population and agriculture. It 

 was formerly seen in flocks of fifty, or more, upon 

 extensive downs or heaths : such as Salisbury Plain, 

 the heaths of Sussex, the Dorsetshire uplands, New- 

 market Heath, and the like ; and as far north as 

 East Lothian, in Scotland : but their appearance has 

 become almost a tradition. Mr. Yarrel states, that 

 nineteen were seen together at Westcape, in Norfolk, 

 so late as 1819 ; and that they are carefully preserved 

 by the proprietor. Royston Heath, Devonshire and 

 Wiltshire, Suffolk and Lincolnshire have been men- 

 tioned as localities, from whence occasional specimens 

 are procured. In Ireland they seem to have existed, 

 although now extinct. 



The male bustard weighs about twenty-seven 

 pounds, if a fine bird; the neck a foot long, the 

 legs a foot and a half, the wings short in proportion 

 to the body, about four feet from the tip of the one 

 to the other. The bird is powerful in flight, but 

 extremely slow in rising ; its preservation was, there- 

 fore, chiefly maintained by its great range of sight : 

 living in open plains where it was almost impossible 

 to approach it without discovery. Without a hedge 

 or fence to screen them, how could the sports- 

 man mark his game? — how could the fowler creep 

 among them? It is recorded, however, that the 

 bustard was run down by greyhounds. After feeding 

 voraciously on the large heath- worms of their native 

 plains, and upon the berries of the plants incident to 

 their localities, they became so pursed out and fat, as 



