HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



GREAT BUSTARD. 



Otist tarda, PEXNANT. MONTAGU. 



OtisA. Bustard. Tarda Slow lazy. 



THE Bustard is frequent in Asia in Tartary and Syria; and 

 in Europe in Russia, as also in Germany, Italy, Spain, Dalmatia, 

 and France; rare in Holland and Sweden. 



This was formerly an actual British bird, though living now 

 only among us in the pages of history. In the catalogue of 

 the collection made by Tradescant, the basis of the present 

 Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, it is spoken of as being taken 

 with greyhounds'on Newmarket Heath, but it seems from what 

 is presently to be stated that this could not well have been 

 the case. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns, in his 'Observations on 

 the Ornithology of Cambridgeshire,' published in 1821, says 

 that till within a few years single individuals had been seen 

 about there, but that they were then supposed to be almost 

 extinct; one, however, a young male, was shot on Shelford 

 Common in January, 1830, and another at Caxton, in December, 

 1832. Ray and Willughby also mention Royston Heath as 

 a place frequented in their time by this species. Salisbury 

 Plain, Wiltshire, was another noted locality for it; one was 

 shot there on the 29th. of September, 1800, and there were 

 two others in company with it. In the summer of 1801 two 

 were seen there, and they are reported to have attacked mounted 

 horsemen; one of them was captured; another, a female, occurred 

 there to Gr. R. Waterhouse, Esq., on the 9th. of August, 1849. 



It was also known in Hampshire, and Gilbert White mentions 

 his having been informed of eighteen once seen together near 



VOL. v. B 



