64 CURSOKES. 



been introduced. That has been especially the case in those 

 sandy and dry tracts of Norfolk, where the remnant is still 

 to be found. Drill husbandry in general, and turnip culture 

 in particular, which bring so many people into the fields for 

 hoeing and other summer labour, disturb the female bustards 

 in their incubation. The eggs, too, are tempting to the 

 rustics ; and even if these are spared, the female, once raised 

 during the day, is shy of sitting again. Such is probably 

 the natural progress toward extermination. 



But there have been other causes. The bustard, especially 

 the male bustard, was always a temptation to the sportsman, 

 who slew away for glory or for lucre (bustards, of course, 

 always sold dear), without considering how slowly these birds 

 breed, compared with any of the common game birds. Lat- 

 terly, those who are called "amateur naturalists," have 

 accelerated the extermination. One does not know whether 

 cupidity for the pot, or cupidity for the cabinet, be the vice 

 most destructive of the beauties of nature ; but it is certain 

 that those caterers for the museum, who go about shooting 

 every rare bird they see, do no small mischief to our orni- 

 thology. A stuffed skin is something without doubt, but it 

 is dearly purchased at the expense of a living race ; and now 

 that the bustards are become too rare for being objects of 

 regular pursuit by sportsmen, it will not redound much to 

 the credit of our prudence in matters of natural history, to 

 have the skins of a few native bustards perishing by the 

 worm in our museums, while we must go to other lands to 

 study the characters and habits of the living bird. 



In other places of the country the more general pasturage 

 of sheep has no doubt had its effect in destroying the bus- 

 tards ; but in all cases the extermination has been hastened 

 by the desire of possessing the bird. It may be too, how- 

 ever, that cultivation has produced some climatal change 

 which is unfavourable to birds that affect dry and lonely 



