294 THE RETURN OF THE GREAT BUSTARD 



to September i, and makes a license necessary to kill it, 

 and trespass in its pursuit an offence under the Act. 

 There remains the question whether any change in the 

 surface of the country has taken place which might 

 render their old haunts less acceptable to the birds. 

 The answer is in the negative, except in the case of 

 those very parts of Norfolk in which it lingered latest. 

 This region, known as the ' breck ' district, was subject 

 to constant sandstorms, and the blowing sand cut and 

 injured the young wheat. To stop this belts of trees 

 were planted, and its open character changed. This, 

 Mr. Stevenson considered, 'rendered it entirely un- 

 suitable to the wary habits of the bustard.' But the 

 whole of the Berkshire and Wiltshire Downs, the Wolds 

 of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and much of the Fen 

 district, is still ideal ground for the bird. It must be 

 remembered that the bustard, though resident formerly 

 all the year in England, is potentially migratory. Stray 

 birds do occasionally appear still from overseas, one of 

 the last being seen in the Fens. Lord Lilford obtained 

 a mate for this bird, but it died one cold night after it 

 was liberated, and the cock bird then disappeared. 



It was never suggested as a cause of its disappearance 

 that the bustard was destroyed as destructive to crops 

 or a nuisance to the farmer. In Spain its diet varies at 

 different seasons. For animal food it likes frogs, mice, 

 lizards, earth-worms, snails, beetles, locusts, and grass- 



