AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 231 



any part of Devonshire, but 'tis well worth looking at. An 

 Englishman don't know what England is till he has been 

 along here." 



The following notice appeared in the Kingsbridge Gazette 

 of February 13th, 1864, headed Ornithology. "That very 

 rare bird, the Little Bustard (Otis Tetrax, Linn), was shot 

 at Prawle on Saturday last. The bird is a mere straggler in 

 this country ; one was shot in the parish of Stokenham 

 about twenty-five years since ; and, a few years before, one 

 at Bigbury. The Little Bustard is a bird of considerable 

 powers of flight; the great deserts of Tartary being its 

 principal stronghold. Large flocks of them have been seen 

 wandering thence in the direction of the Caucasus and the 

 Caspian Sea, also to the south of Russia, Siberia, Turkey, 

 and Greece; and in small numbers in Italy, Spain, and 

 France. They are polygamous; but a male specimen has 

 seldom been met with in this country. Their food consists 

 of vegetables, insects, worms, grain, and seeds." 



Respecting one of the birds above mentioned, the following 

 communication was made to Loudon's " Magazine of Natural 

 History," and signed Charles Prideaux, Hatch Arundel, near 

 Kingsbridge, Devon. "On Friday, the loth November, 

 1839, a specimen of that very rare bird, the Little Bustard, 

 was killed at Bigbury, in the south of Devon, which came 

 into my possession the next day. This is, I believe, the 

 second occurrence of this bird in that county; and it is 

 rather singular that in the other instance the bird was 

 bought in Plymouth market in 1801-, by my brother, 

 William Prideaux, and presented to the late Colonel 

 Montagu, and is now in the British Museum : it was killed 

 in the north of Devon." 



