LITTLE BUSTABD. 7 



Hewet, Esq., of Reading, has obligingly informed me, in 

 1849 on Mr. Deane's farm (English) in Oxfordshire; one was 

 also shot on Denton Common in December, 1833; one at 

 Boshan, near Chichester, Sussex, in 1852, of which A. Fuller, 

 Esq. has written me word; and two near Birmingham, War- 

 wickshire, in October, 1839. In Cornwall, some half a dozen 

 specimens have occurred one in December, 1853. In Kent 

 one, at Chatham, in January, 1834. Others in Devonshire. 



In Scotland one is related to have been obtained near 

 Montrose in December, 1833, the only 'Legend of Montrose' 

 or of Scotland respecting the species in that part of the island. 



In Ireland the late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, 

 mentions that two were seen in the county of Wicklow on 

 the 23rd. of August, 1833, and that one of them was shot. 



They inhabit champaign countries, both waste and cultivated, 

 and are fine birds to eat. The male is polygamous. 



They fly, if suddenly alarmed, with great speed and power 

 for a distance of fifty or a hundred yards, raised but a little 

 above the surface of the ground, and on alighting, are said to 

 run with swiftness. If several are in company they are very 

 wary. 



They feed on grain, grasses, and various vegetables, dandelions, 

 clover, turnips, and other sorts, as also on insects. 



Meyer likens the note to the syllable 'proot,' and says that 

 it is most heard at night, and that the young chirp like 

 chickens. 



The nest is on the ground a mere hollow, under the shelter 

 of any sufficiently high herbage that may be proximate. 



The eggs are said to be from three to five in number, olive 

 brown in colour, sometimes varied with patches of a darker 

 shade of brown. 



Male; weight, twenty- five ounces; length, about one foot five 

 inches; bill, brown; iris, golden yellow; behind it is a bare 

 space. Head on the crown, pale chesnut, mottled with black; 

 on the sides, bluish grey, neck in front, and on the sides, 

 bluish grey, bounded below with a border of black passing 

 to the back of the neck; that is succeeded by a narrow white 

 ring, and this again by a broad band of black; beneath this 

 is a gorget of white, followed by another of black. In 

 winter the neck is pale chesnut, marked with black. Breast, 

 white, the down at the base of the feathers pale rose-colour. 

 Back, pale chesnut, streaked irregularly with numerous narrow 

 lines of black. 



