36 Linnaan Society, 



Guadalquivir, and leaving the hens behind them. The young are 

 hatched in the corn-plains about Seville, and are able to take care of 

 themselves when the com is cut in July, after which the young birds 

 and hens follow the cocks to the marshes. The birds are very diffi- 

 cult to shoot : the heaviest shot by Mr, Nicholson weighed 28 pounds ; 

 and the largest measured 7 feet 3 inches from tip to tip of wing. 

 Those of a year old weigh from 8 to 10 pounds, and are much the 

 best eating. Their stomachs were found crammed with barley, 

 both leaves and ears, with the leaves of a large-leaved green weed 

 and with a kind of beetle. When flushed they generally fly for two 

 or more miles, and sometimes at least 100 yards high. They never 

 try to run, and Mr. Nicholson cannot imagine greyhounds being 

 able to catch bustards, as they are reported to have done. 



Mr. John WoUey, jun., states that he had never seen the Great 

 Bustard, or received its eggs, from the neighbourhood of Tangier. 

 "While ascending the Guadalquivir, about the month of September, 

 he saw several flocks of four or five birds each on the level plains 

 which extend along the banks of that river, walking apparently in 

 file, some with their heads down. They did not appear to be timid, 

 or very cautious ; but once, as the boat came suddenly round a 

 corner, several of them rose together, springing hastily to the height 

 of 40 or 50 feet, and then turning suddenly and somewhat clumsily, 

 after a few more rapid strokes, sailed along with the arched form of 

 wings so general in game birds. 



Mr. Yarrell's next notice is derived from a letter in the possession 

 of John Britton, Esq., giving an account of two bustards seen on 

 Salisbury Plain in the summer of 1801, within a fortnight of each 

 other, both of which attacked mounted horsemen, and one of which 

 was captured and kept for some time by Mr. J. Bartley of Tilstead, 

 by whom it was eventually sold to Lord Temple. The letter gives 

 numerous details of the habits of this bird from the information of 

 Mr. Bartley. 



J. H. Gurney, Esq., of Norwich, states in a letter to Mr. Yarrell 

 that, as far as he can learn, the last bustard killed in Norfolk was a 

 female, which was shot at Lexham, near SwaiFham, towards the end 

 of the year 1838. The small flock of which this was one had for 

 several years consisted of females only, the eggs of which were fre- 

 quently picked up, having been dropped about at random in conse- 

 quence of the absence of male birds, the latter having become extinct 

 at an earlier date. Fredk. J. Nash, Esq., of Bishop's Stortford, has 

 several times informed Mr. Yarrell that, when taking the field as a 

 young sportsman, he once saw nine flights of bustards in one day 

 not far from Thetford in Norfolk. And Gilbert White of Selborne 

 mentions in his Diary, under date of November 17th, 1782, that 

 being at a lone farm-house between Whorwell and Winchester, the 

 carter told him that about twelve years before, he had seen a flock 

 of eighteen bustards at one time on that farm. Three instances only 

 of the appearance of the bustard in England have been noticed by 

 Mr. Yarrell since the publication of the second edition of his ' Hi- 

 story of British Birds ;' one, a female, recorded by G. R. Waterhou^, 



