THE RETURN OF THE GREAT BUSTARD 293 



Spain they are not averse to modern cultivation ; in 

 fact, they prefer the corn-lands. The story o. their 

 disappearance in Norfolk shows that, far from disliking 

 corn-land, they were only too fond of it. They would 

 lay their eggs in the winter-sown wheat, which is high 

 and green early in spring. When wheat began to be 

 drilled and hoed, instead of being sown broadcast, every 

 bustard's nest was found. Though forbidden by the 

 Act of 25 Henry VIII., these eggs were taken by the 

 farm boys and labourers, and kept as curiosities or 

 eaten. As there were only two ' droves ' left early in 

 the present century one in the open country round 

 Swaffham, the other near Thetford, of which the former 

 only numbered twenty-seven in or about the year 1820, 

 while after the year 1812 the Thetford 'drove 'was 

 only reckoned at twenty-four it is not strange that 

 with constant * egging ' and occasional shooting they 

 disappeared. The last nest in Norfolk was probably 

 that made on a farm at Great Massingham in 1835 or 

 1836, from which some eggs were taken, one of which 

 is preserved. The destruction of the eggs and killing 

 of the birds is clearly within the limits of prevention ; 

 and no County Council would refuse a resolution to 

 enforce the law, which still exists, against the taking of 

 bustards' eggs. The bird, its eggs, and young, are 

 already protected by Section 24 of the Game Act or 

 1831, which also gives it a close season from March i 



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