60 CURSOEES. 



plans,) which I have no doubt in my own mind were bustards, 

 although from the little knowledge I then had of the names 

 even of these local birds, which were absolutely teazing me 

 to study their habits every day, and the length of time that 

 elapsed before I saw even a tolerable representation or 

 description of a bustard, I cannot venture to record my belief 

 as an authentic instance. The place consisted of a wide 

 extent of a very bleak and bare surface, half moor, half marsh, 

 but so constituted both ways, that neither could claim it 

 wholly. It was surrounded by "outfields" of barley, which 

 was choked in the shoot-blade, or oats, which seldom got 

 white till helped by the frost ; but at one place a dell, with a 

 succession of pools, formed a sort of drainage, and there the 

 sward was a little more kindly. I was on the one side of 

 these pools, and near the other was the termination of the 

 cropped land, fringing the summit in a way, but not coming 

 over it. The wind had been keen and hollow from the east 

 for some days (an east wind in such a place often makes May 

 cut up April and March) : but it had veered round, rain had 

 fallen, and all was beginning to be green. It might be the 

 end of May, or the beginning of June, and an hour or two 

 after sunrise. I saw two brown birds of great size, by the 

 edge of the cover, and very distinctly made out against the 

 sky. They might have been about a quarter of a mile dis- 

 tant, so that I could not see the markings or minute parts; 

 but they were certainly larger in size than any of the common 

 birds, more especially than any that appear in the summer. 

 The pools formed a perfect barrier, and I am not sure whether 

 then I should have approached to take a nearer view, even if 

 there had been no impediment in the way. After a little 

 while they stalked off out of sight, by descending the other 

 side among the corn, and I did not see them either alight or 

 take wing, so as to observe the wings suspended half-closer 1 

 for a time, which is one of the characters of the bustard when 



