544 THE GREAT-BUSTARD 



THE GREAT-BUSTARD 

 [F. C. R. JOURDAIN] 



Although from time to time stray individuals of this species turn 

 up casually in their former haunts on the wolds and downs of England, 

 our British stock has been extinct for seventy years or more. Even 

 before that time most of the big flocks had been gradually broken up 

 and reduced in numbers, and owing to the frequency with which their 

 eggs were taken or destroyed during farming operations, there was 

 little or no opportunity for recuperation. Other causes, which also 

 undoubtedly contributed to their destruction, were the in-and-in 

 breeding which must have resulted from the diminution of the stock, 

 and the long period which this species takes to attain maturity. The 

 old male, being far the largest and heaviest bird in the flock, would 

 naturally be singled out for destruction, and possibly in the next 

 season there might be no fully adult male to propagate the race. 

 Besides these causes, there was also the steady drain on their 

 numbers through occasional shots on the part of keepers or tenants, 

 even where no systematic pursuit was indulged in. There is very 

 little accurate information available as to the exact dates of the 

 disappearance of the great droves which at one time haunted 

 the plains of Wiltshire and Hampshire, with outlying pickets on 

 the Dorset hills and the Sussex downs, while on the north-east 

 they ranged into Berkshire. Similarly, the great droves on the 

 Yorkshire wolds passed away almost unnoticed, but the East Anglian 

 stock, although they early disappeared from Lincolnshire, Cambridge- 

 shire, and Hertfordshire, managed to survive in their last strongholds 

 in Norfolk and Suffolk till about 1838 or a few years later. For fuller 

 details, the late Henry Stevenson's article in the Birds of Norfolk 

 (vol. ii. pp. 1-42) should be consulted. Here it is sufficient to note 

 that there were two distinct droves, one of which haunted the 



