GREAT BUSTARD. 201 



now remained the last two counties where the indigenous 

 Bustard maintained a footing. In the former the head- 

 quarters of one "drove " were on the open country lying 

 between Icklingham Heath, Brandon and Thetford, and 

 from the latter a certain amount of communication appears 

 to have been kept up with the Norfolk " drove " which 

 frequented the neighbourhood of S waff ham. In the Suffolk 

 district, North Stow Heath and Icklingham Heath seem 

 to have been the chief resorts ; and up to 1812 the 

 " drove " appears to have consisted of some thirty or forty 

 individuals. About this period commenced the practice of 

 planting long belts of trees with the object of sheltering the 

 arable land from the pernicious effect of the wind acting 

 upon a light sandy soil ; and the result of this agricultural 

 improvement was soon manifested by the rapid diminution 

 in the numbers of the Bustards. Although protected by 

 the Duke of Grafton at Euston, Mr. Newton at Elveden, and 

 Messrs. Gwilt at Icklingham, other proprietors permitted and 

 even encouraged their destruction, and a keeper was even 

 allowed to rig-up a masked battery of duck-guns concen- 

 trated upon a spot strewn with turnips : a cord half a mile 

 long being attached to the triggers of the guns, and the 

 shepherds and farm-labourers being duly instructed in the 

 art of working this infernal machine. In 1832 a nest, be- 

 lieved to be the last in Suffolk, was found on the borders of 

 Thetford Warren, and recorded by the late Mr. J. D. Hoy 

 (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1833, p. 150), who stated that the old bird 

 carried off her young in safety, and that a male and two 

 females were subsequently seen together on the same heath. 

 This nest was situated in a field of rye, as were nearly all 

 the nests pointed out by eye-witnesses. 



In Norfolk the late Mr. J. D. Salmon has recorded (Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. 1834, p. 458) that " in the spring of 1832, three 

 females resorted to Great Massingham Heath, in Norfolk, 

 for incubation. Their eggs consisted of two pairs and a 

 single one. These were taken away, under the impression 

 that as there was no male bird, they were good for nothing ; 

 but the male is said to live apart after the female is impreg- 



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