NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



keepers and farmers of the Yorkshire wolds by means 

 of that old-fashioned method, the trained stalking-horse, 

 the stalker himself wearing a coat made of horse hide 

 to correspond as nearly as possible with the colour of 

 the animal behind which he sheltered. Some very in- 

 teresting letters published by Mr. J. E. Harting, in an 

 article in the Field of June 3rd, 1897, afforded remark- 

 able details of bustard-shooting in those days. In the 

 year 1808, by means of this device, eleven bustards fell 

 at a single shot to one Agars, a woldkeeper of that 

 period. An enormous bag, truly ! These great bus- 

 tards of England seem to have been far more confiding 

 in their habits than their near congener, the paauw, or 

 great bustard of South Africa, which is, as the writer 

 can testify, one of the most wary of all sporting fowl. 

 It is probable, however, that English sportsmen were 

 in the habit of attracting a great number of the birds to 

 one spot by means of some favourite food, and then 

 delivering a terrific discharge from one or more guns of 

 heavy calibre. There is a record of a Norfolk keeper 

 at the beginning of last century who arranged a battery 

 of three or four heavy duck guns, covering a spot at 

 which bustards had been accustomed to feed. Seven 

 great bustards are known to have fallen to one of these 

 murderous volleys. By such means, by constant perse- 

 cution in those localities over which it ranged, and by 

 the natural increase of population and of tillage, the 

 great bustard has become extirpated in these islands. 

 But, although now of the rarest occurrence in its ancient 

 English haunts, this splendid game-bird is to be found 

 plentifully in Spain, the Danubian Provinces, and in 

 parts of Asia and North Africa. In Spain excellent 

 sport is got with these birds by driving, while some 

 numbers are shot over pointers in standing crops, to 

 which towards harvest-time they resort. In Andalusia 



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