504 



A HISTORY OP 



CHAPTER XCIV. 



THE BUSTARD. 



THE Bustard is the largest land-bird that 

 is a native of Britain. It was once much 

 more numerous than it is at present; but 

 the increased cultivation of the country, and 

 the extreme delicacy of its flesh, has greatly 

 thinned the species ; so that a time may come 

 when it may be doubted whether ever so 

 large a bird was bred among us. It is pro- 

 bable that long before this the bustard would 

 have been extirpated, but for its peculiar 

 mariner of feeding. Had it continued to seek 

 shelter among our woods, in proportion as 

 they were cut down, it must have been de- 

 stroyed. If in the forest, the fowler might 

 approach it without being seen; and the 

 bird, from its size, would be too great a mark 

 to be easily missed. But it inhabits only the 

 open and extensive plain, where its food lies 

 in abundance, and where every invader may 

 be seen at a distance. 



The bustard is much larger than the tur- 

 key, the male generally weighing from twen- 

 ty-five to twenty-seven pounds. The neck 

 is a foot long, and the legs a foot and a half. 

 The wings are not proportionable to the rest 

 of the body, being but four feet from the tip 

 of the one to the other ; for which reason 

 the bird flies with great difficulty. The head 

 ant! neck of the male are ash-coloured; the 

 back is barred transversely with black, bright, 

 and rust colour. The greater quill feathers 

 are black ; the belly white ; and the tail, 

 which consists of twenty feathers, is marked 

 with broad black bars. 



It would seem odd, as was hinted before, 

 how so large a land-bird as this could find 

 shelter in so cultivated a country as England ; 

 but the wonder will cease when we find it 

 only in the most open countries, where there 

 is scarce any approaching without being dis- 

 covered. They are frequently seen in flocks 

 of fifty or more, in the extensive downs of 

 Salisbury Plain, in the heaths of .Sussex and 

 Cambridgeshire, the Dorsetshire uplands, and 



so on as far as East Lothian in Scotland. In 

 those extensive plains, where there are no 

 woods to screen the sportsman, nor hedges 

 to creep along, the bustards enjoy an indo- 

 lent security. Their food is composed of the 

 berries that grow among the heath, and the 

 large earth-worms that appear in great quan- 

 tities on the downs before sun-rising in sum- 

 mer. It is in vain that the fowler creeps for- 

 ward to approach them, they have always 

 centinels placed at proper eminences, which 

 are ever on the watch, arid warn the flock of 

 the smallest appearance of danger. All there- 

 fore that is left to the sportsman, is the com- 

 fortless view of their distant security. He 

 may wish ; but they are in safety. 



It sometimes happens that these birds, 

 though they are seldom shot by the gun, are 

 often run down by grayhounds. As they 

 are voracious and greedy, they often sacrifice 

 their safety to their appetite, and feed them- 

 selves so very fat, that they are unable to fly 

 without great preparation. When the gray- 

 hound, therefore, comes within a certain dis- 

 tance, the bustard runs off flapping its wings, 

 and endeavouring to gather air enough un- 

 der them to rise; in the mean time, the ene- 

 my approaches nearer and nearer, till it is 

 too late for the bird even to think of obtain- 

 ing safety by flight; for just at the rise there is 

 always time lost, and of this the bird is sensible ; 

 it continues, therefore, on the foot, until it has 

 got a sufficient way before the dog for flight, 

 or until it is taken. 



As there are few places where they can at 

 once find proper food and security, so they 

 generally continue near their old haunts, sel- 

 dom wandering above twenty or thirty miles 

 from home. As their food is replete with 

 moisture, it enables them to live upon these 

 dry plains, where there are scarcely any 

 springs of water, a long time v* ithout drink- 

 ing. Besides this, nature has given the males 

 an admirable magazine for their security 



