THE POULTRY KIND. 90 



bodies, are speckled ; in our climate they lay but five or six in a sea 

 son ; but they are far more prolific 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 the rear 

 ing. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE BUSTARD. 



THE Bustard is the largest land-bird that is a native of Brit, in 

 It was once much more numerous than it is at present ; but the in- 

 creased 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 probable that long before this the bustard would have been ex- 

 tirpated, 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 ap- 

 proach 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 turkey, the male generally 

 weighing from twenty-five to twenty-seven pounds. Tlie neck is a 

 foot long, and the legs a foot and a half. The wings are not propor 

 tionable 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 diffi- 

 culty. 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 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 coun- 

 tries, where there is scarce any approaching without being discover- 

 ed. They are frequently seen in flocks of fifty or more, in the ex- 

 tensive downs of Salisbury-Plain, in the heaths of Sussex and Cam 

 bridgeshire, 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 sportsrr.an, nor hedges to creep along, the bustards en- 

 joy an indolent security. 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 approach them, they have always 

 c:ntinels placed at proper eminences, which are ever on the watch 



