178 EEMIXISCENCES OF A SPOETSMAX. 



eggs, of the size of those of a goose, of a pale olive 

 brown, marked with spots of dark colour, and sits on 

 her eggs for thirty days ; they make no nest, but merely 

 scrape a hole in the ground. If any one should have 

 touched the eggs they desert them. In Wiltshire they 

 were formerly found in large turnip fields near the 

 downs, and a century ago sometimes in flocks of twenty 

 or thirt3^ 



It is truly to be regretted that the bustard is now 

 scarcely ever seen in this part of England. A friend of 

 mine, when riding across the Salisbury plains, about ten 

 years ago, saw a bustard, not more than thirty or forty 

 yards from him : this is the only one I have heard of 

 being seen in Wiltshire, excepting that, in the summer 

 of 1859, a gentleman saw two bustards on the Salisbury 

 plains at no great distance from him. 



When I resided in Norfolk between forty and fifty years 

 ago, being then on half pay, I called one morning on an 

 old friend, the late Mr. Hyde of Lexham Hall, who 

 said, " Stay and dine with me, and you shall have a 

 bustard for dinner." I accepted the invitation, especially 

 as I had never tasted the flesh of this bird ; but I felt a 

 great curiosity to know from Mr. Hyde by what means 

 he had got the bustard. He said, " A tenant of mine 

 brought me the bustard a few days ago, and thus re- 

 lated how he got it : 'I was riding up a lane with my 

 gun and a terrier dog to scare the rooks and birds from 

 a piece of wheat, when a large bird, which I had never 

 before seen, flew across the lane about twenty yards from 

 me. I fired at him and broke the bustard's pinion wing, 

 and he fell on the other side of the hedge. I instantly 

 jumped off my horse, scrambled over the hedge, and 

 saw the bird running almost as fast as a greyhound. 



