76 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



have given it the name of that part of Africa 

 from whence, probably, it was first brought. 



In many parts of their native country, they 

 are seen in vast flocks together, feeding their 

 young, and leading them in quest of food. 

 All their habits are like those of the poultry 

 kind, and they agree in every other respect, 

 except that the male and female are so much 

 alike, that they can hardly be distinguished 

 asunder. The only difference lies in the wat- 

 tles described above ; which in the cock are of 

 a bluish cast; in the hen they are more in- 

 clining to a red. Their eggs, like their bodies, 

 are speckled; in our climate, they lay but five 

 or six in a season ; but they are far more pro- 

 lific in their sultry regions at home. They 

 are kept among us rather for show than use, 

 as their flesh is not much esteemed, and as 

 they give a good deal of trouble in rearing. 



CHAP. VII. 



THE BUSTARD. 



THE Bustard is the largest land bird that is 

 a native of Britain. It was once much more 

 numerous than at present; but the increased 

 cultivation of the country, and the extreme de- 

 licacy of its flesh, has greatly thinned the spe- 

 cies ; so that a time may come when it may 

 be doubted whether ever so large a bird was 

 bred among us. It is probable that long be- 

 fore this the bustard would have been extir- 

 pated, but for its peculiar manner of feeding. 

 Had it continued to seek shelter among our 

 woods, in proportion as they were cut down, 

 it must have been destroyed. 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 in- 

 habits 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 twenty- 

 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 and 

 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 



cients under the name of Meleagris or Numidian Fowl. 

 Its flesh was much esteemed by the Romans. Among 

 the varieties of this bird are the Crested Pintado (See 

 Plate XVIII. fig. 11.) and the Mitred Pintado. 



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 it without being 

 discovered. 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 1 

 In those extensive plains, where there are no 

 woods to screen the sportsman, nor hedges to 

 creep along, the bustards enjoy an indolent se- 

 curity. Their food is composed of the berries 

 that grow among the heath, and the large 

 earth-worms that appear in great quantities on 

 the downs before sun-rising in summer. It is 

 in vain that the fowler creeps forward to ap- 

 proach them, they have always sentinels 

 placed at proper eminences, which are ever 

 on the watch, and warn the flock of the small- 

 est appearance of danger. All therefore that 

 is left the sportsman, is the comfortless 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 the greyhounds. 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 grey- 

 hound, therefore, comes within a certain dis- 

 tance, the bustard runs off flapping its wings, 

 and endeavouring to gather air enough under 

 them to rise ; in the meantime, the enemy ap- 

 proaches nearer and nearer, till it is too late 

 for the bird even to think of obtaining 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 without drink- 

 ing. Besides this, Nature has given the 

 males an admirable magazine for their secu- 

 rity against thirst. This is a pouch, the en- 

 tra'nce of which lies immediately under the 



1 The Great Bustard is now extremely scarce in Bri- 

 tain. Indeed, Selby is inclined to believe that the breed 

 in this country is extinct. 



