GREAT BUSTARD. 429 



OTIS. Generic CJiaracters.Bill moderate, straight, depressed at the 

 base, the point of the upper mandible curved. Nostrils a little removed 

 from the base, lateral, oval, and open. Legs long, naked above the tarsal 

 joint. Toes three, all directed forward, short, united at the base, and 

 edged with membrane. Wings of moderate length, in form rather rounded ; 

 the third quill-feather the longest. 



THE GREAT BUSTARD is a bird of such interest as well 

 as magnitude, that every individual capture becomes a sub- 

 ject for ornithological record. Dr. Turner, who wrote in 

 1544, include it among his England birds. In the printed 

 catalogue of the contents of the Tradescant Museum, pre- 

 served at South Lambeth, in 1656, is, " The Bustard, as 

 big as a Turkey, usually taken by greyhounds on New- 

 market Heath ; " and Merrett, in his Pinax rerum natura- 

 lium Britannic arum, in 1667, includes the Bustard as taken 

 on Newmarket Heath and about Salisbury. Those who 

 are desirous of ascertaining what was known of the Bustard 

 in more ancient times, may consult the works of Lilian, 

 Albertus Magnus, Aldrovandus, Aristotle, Athenaeus, 

 Belon, H. Boethius, Oppian, Pliny, and Plutarch. Mon- 

 tagu notices some instances of the occurrence of these birds 

 in Devonshire, and says that he had seen them in Wilt- 

 shire. White of Selborne, in that portion of his Journal 

 published by Mr. Jesse in the second volume of his Glean- 

 ings in Natural History, says, " Spent three hours of this 

 day, November 17, 1782, at a lone farm-house, in the 

 midst of the downs between Andover and Winton. The 

 carter told us that about twelve years before he had seen 

 a flock of eighteen Bustards on that farm, and once since 

 only two." White adds in another place, " Bustards when 

 seen on the downs resemble fallow deer at a distance." 

 In Daniel's Rural Sports, it is stated, " that on the 29th 

 of September, 1800, Mr. Crouch, of Burford, shot a hen 

 Bustard on Salisbury Plain. This bird was killed at the 

 distance of forty yards with a common fowling-piece and 



