1-56 HISTORY OF 



In many parts of their native country they are 

 seen in vast flocks together, feeding their young, 

 and leading them in quest of food. All their 

 habits are like those of the poultry kind, and 

 they agree in every other respect, except that 

 the male and female are so much alike, that they 

 can hardly be distinguished asunder. The only 

 difference lies in the wattles described above, 

 which in the cock are of a bluish cast, in the hen 

 they are more inclining to a red. Their eggs, 

 like their bodies, are speckled ; in our climate 

 they lay but five or six in a season, 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 rearing. 



'. > 19 we I odt -incii : 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE BUSTARD. 



THE Bustard is the largest land bird that is a 

 native of Britain. It was once much more nu- 

 merous than it is at present ; but the increased 

 cultivation of the country, and the extreme de- 

 licacy 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 extirpated, but for its peculiar 



