THE GREAT BUSTARD 113 



the native race in that part of the country was killed. 

 In the adjoining county of Lincoln bustards became 

 extinct somewhere about that time. In Wiltshire the 

 end is said to have arrived some few years earlier. In 

 East Anglia, however, bustards managed to survive still 

 a few years later, the last-known examples, two females, 

 being shot there in 1838. 



Since those dates, at intervals of a few years, bustards 

 have been reported as occurring in various parts of 

 this country. These, of course, are merely visitors 

 that have come over from the Continent, quite possibly 

 from Spain, in which country the great bustard is still 

 fairly abundant. 



THE GROUSE FAMILY 



THERE are in these islands four distinct species of 

 the grouse family. These are (i) The Wood-Grouse or 

 Capercaillie, (2) The Black Grouse, (3) The Red Grouse, 

 (4) The Ptarmigan. Each individual member of this 

 interesting group of game-birds may readily be dis- 

 tinguished from the rest by reason of its habits no less 

 than by its general appearance. For example, the 

 Capercaillie and the Blackcock are more or less wood- 

 land birds, the favourite haunt of the former being the 

 dense pine-woods, the latter preferring the younger 

 plantations and the scrub bordering on the moors and 

 cultivated ground. Both species are polygamous. The 

 Red Grouse and the Ptarmigan, on the contrary, 

 habitually frequent the open country, the former being, 

 as is well known, a denizen of the moorlands ; whilst 

 winter and summer, the latter resides upon the hill-tops 



