BIRDS. 131 



CHAP. VII. 



THE BUSTARD. 



The Custard is the largest land bird that is a native of Bri. 

 tain. It was once much more numerous than it is at present ; 

 but the increased cultivation of the country, and the extreme 

 delicacy of its flesh, has greatly thinned the species ; so that a 

 time may come when it may be doubted whether ever so large a 

 bird was bred among us. It is probable that long before this 

 the bustard would have been extirpated, but for its peculiar 

 manner of feeding. Had it continued to seek shelter among our 

 woods, in proportion as they were cut down, it must have been 

 destroyed. If in the forest, the fowler might approach it with- 

 out being seen ; and the bird, from its size, would be too great 

 a mark to be easily missed. But it inhabits only the open and 

 extensive plain, where its food lies in abundance, and where 

 every invader may be seen at a distance. 



The bustard is much larger than the turkey, the male gener- 

 ally weighing from twenty-five to twenty-seven pounds. The 

 neck is a foot long, and the legs a foot and a half. The wings 

 are not proportionable to the rest of the body, being but four 

 feet from the tip of the one to the other ; for which reason the 

 bird flies with great difficulty. The head and neck of the male 

 are ash-coloured ; the back is barred transversely with black, 

 bright, and rust colour. The greater quill-feathers are black ; 

 the belly white ; and the tail, which consists of twenty feathers, 

 is marked with broad black bars. 



It would seem odd, as was hinted before, how so large a land 

 bird as this could find shelter in so cultivated a country as Eng- 

 land ; but the wonder will cease when we find it only in the 

 most open countries, where there is scarce any approaching it 

 without being discovered. They are frequently seen in flocks of 

 fifty or more, in the extensive downs of Salisbury Plain, in the 

 heaths of Sussex and Cambridgeshire, the Dorsetshire uplands, 

 and so on as far as East Lothian in Scotland. In those exten- 

 sive plains, where there are no weeds to screen the sportsman. 

 ror hedges to creep along, the bustards enjoy an indolent secu- 

 rity. Their food is composed of the berries that grow among 



