THE POULTRY KIND. 157 



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 approach it with- 

 out 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 in- 

 vader 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. The neck is a foot long,, 

 and the legs a foot and a half. The wings are 

 not proportionable to the rest of the body, being 

 but four feet from the tip of the one to the other j 

 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 

 countries, where there is scarcely any approaching 

 without being discovered. They are frequently 

 seen in flocks of fifty or more, in the extensive 

 downs of Salisbury Plain, in the heaths of Sussex 

 and Cambridgeshire, the Dorsetshire uplands, and 

 so on as far as East Lothian in Scotland. In 

 those extensive plains, where there are no woods. 



