GREAT BUSTARD. 195 



they perceive their egges to have bene touched in theyr 

 absence by man's hand (which lie commonly on the bare 

 earth), they forsake those nestes and lay in other places."* 

 The next allusion comes from the latest stronghold of the 

 Bustard in this country, namely, from Norfolk; the often 

 quoted Household Books of the L 'Estranges of Hunstan- 

 ton having the following entries, 1527 : " The xljst Weke, 

 Wedynsday. It. viij malards, a bustard and j hernsewe 

 kylled w* ye crosbowe " ; and in 1530, " Itm. in reward 

 the xxvth day of July to Baxter's svnt of Stannewgh for 

 bryngyng of ij yong busterds ij<i." 



In 1534 the eggs of Bustards were specified in the Act for 

 the protection of Wild Fowle (25th Henry VIII.), the penalty 

 being the same as in the case of the Crane, already men- 

 tioned ; and ten years later Dr. William Turner speaks of 

 the Bustard as a resident species. The following extracts 

 from Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, as exhibiting the 

 prices of various kinds of game provided for a feast given in 

 the Inner Temple Hall on the 16th of October, 1555, the 

 third year of Philip and Mary, are not without ornithologi- 

 cal interest : namely, Bustards, 10s. each ; Swans, 10s. ; 

 Cranes, 10s. ; Pheasants, 4s. ; Turkeys, 4s. ; Turkey chicks, 

 4s. ; Capons, 2s. 6d. ; Pea chickens, 2s. ; Partridges, Is. 4d. ; 

 Plovers, Qd. ; Curlews, Is. Sd. ; Godwits, 2s. 6d. ; Knots, 

 Is. ; Pigeons, Is. 6d. a dozen ; Larks, 8d. a dozen ; Wood- 

 cocks, 7s. Sd. a dozen ; Snipes, 2s. a dozen. 



The Dr. Thomas Muffet, previously cited when treating of 

 the Crane, writing in Wiltshire prior to 1590, makes the 

 following quaint remarks : 



" Bistards or Bustards (so called for their slow pace and 

 heavy flying), or, as the Scots term them, Gusestards, that is 

 to say Slow Geese, feed upon flesh, Livers, and young Lambsf 



* The ^Description of Scotlande, in Holinshed's Chronicles, 1st Ed. i. p. 10 

 (1577). 



f This remark evidently arose from a confusion not uncommon at the 

 present day between the names Bustard and Buzzard ! During the visitation 

 of 1870-71, Bustards were mentioned in print, in^Devonshire and elsewhere, as 

 'Wild Turkeys' a pardonable error; but the climax was reached at Barnstaple, 



