542 THE GREAT-BUSTARD 



2. Distribution. In Great Britain this fine species has long ceased to breed, 

 although attempts have been made to reintroduce it of late years without success, 

 and on one or two occasions eggs are known to have been laid. It formerly bred 

 not only in Berwickshire and East Lothian, but also in many of the open down- 

 lands of England. Among the counties in which it is known to have bred may 

 be mentioned Yorkshire, Lincoln, Cambridge, Hertford, Berkshire, Wilts, Dorset, 

 Hants, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sussex. Its last stronghold was East Anglia, and 

 here the last fertile eggs were laid about 1838, though a few birds may have 

 survived till later. On the Continent it is numerous in the Iberian Peninsula, 

 and is found in small numbers in France : in North Germany it is not 

 uncommon, but becomes scarcer in the south, and is found also in Austria-Hungary, 

 the Danubian states, and Turkey, but is rare in Greece, and absent from Italy, 

 while in Russia its range extends from Poland, Tchernigov, Orel, Saratov, Penza, 

 Tula, and Riazan, Samara and Orenburg, over a great part of Central and Southern 

 Russia, south to the Black Sea. In Asia its range extends from Asia Minor and 

 Syria through Mesopotamia into Transcaspia and Western Siberia north to about 

 lat. 54 N. and east to the Altai range, but allied races are found in the Tian- 

 Shan and Alatau, as well as in Eastern Siberia to Ussuria. Although resident for 

 a great part of its range, the more northerly breeding birds are subject to local 

 movements, and some winter in the Mediterranean basin, and occasionally in 

 North-western Africa, the Black Sea region, Asia Minor, etc. As a straggler 

 it has occurred in India ; while the eastern race has been recorded from Japan. 

 [F. c. R. j.] 



3. Migration. Formerly an indigenous British bird, this species is now 

 only known in our area as an irregular cold weather visitor from the Continent. 

 Seasons in which notable incursions have taken place are 1870-71, 1879-80, and 

 1890-91 (cf. Saunders, III. Man. B. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 524). On these migrations 

 the records are mainly from the eastern and southern counties of England, but 

 exceptionally from as far north as Orkney. There is no Irish record. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. No nest is formed as a rule, the eggs being deposited 

 in a scratching made by the hen-bird, generally in standing corn. Occasionally a 

 few stalks are said to be added by way of lining. In the northern part of its range 

 the normal clutch appears to consist of two eggs only, and clutches of three are 

 exceptional, but in the south of Spain three may be said to constitute the normal 

 clutch, and four eggs are occasionally found together. They are large and rather 

 variable in shape, varying from light to darker olive-green or brownish olive in 



