FEEXCHMAXS ANECDOTE OF THE BUSTARD. 179 



As I found I had no chance of catching him, I set my 

 dog after him, and after a chase he seized the bird and 

 kept him until I came up. So I brought you tliis bird, 

 and beg you to accept him, as I suppose from what I 

 have heard that it is a wild turkey.' " It proved an ex- 

 cellent bird, and the breast was of two colours, ])rown 

 and white. 



The bustard is found in several parts of Spain, par- 

 ticularly in the wide and extensive plains of Castille. 

 A young Frenchman thus gives an account of a bustard 

 he shot in Andalusia : " One day, going from Zebeda 

 to Lebrija, I was in some young wheat. My dog Chispa 

 fullowed cautiously a brace of red-legged partridges 

 which were running. All at once the dog raised his 

 nose, pricked up his ears, left the partridges, and started 

 off in an opposite direction ; at the end of twenty yards 

 he came to a dead point, with his head elevated as if he was 

 pointing a bullock. I ran, expecting from this singular 

 attitude something uncommon. I advanced before my 

 dog, following the direction which his ardent and fixed 

 eye indicated. Then I saAV, rising above the corn, first 

 a head attached to a long neck, then a feathered body, 

 which running on two long legs, slowiy spread two wide 

 wings, and took a heavy flight. I fired at this un- 

 known bird, my gun loaded with small shot. It fell by 

 the gTeatest chance, and Chispa, flying on it furiously, 

 had the good luck by a bite to break one of the jiinions 

 of his "vving, and to hold it till I came up. It was a 

 bustard, called by the Spaniards avertada, of the large 

 species which live in Africa, and cross the narrow 

 channel of the sea to breed in Andalusia. This bustard 

 is infinitely larger than the two other species found in 



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