GREAT BUSTARD. 65 



"wastes. In that case there is no remedy : we might with 

 justice forego the rarity at the table, and the marvel in the 

 museum, for the sake of seeing so majestic a bird stalking 

 about at its ease and in safety ; but our desire of that ought 

 not to interfere with the rational progress of those arts on 

 which the people depend for bread. If the result is to be 

 turnips in place of charlock, or oats and rye in place of 

 thistles, by all means let the bustard go, only keep him as 

 long as possible. 



The food of the bustard is, like that of the gallinse, very 

 miscellaneous. Insects and earthworms are the favourite 

 food, and the food of the young ; and the birds are early 

 astir, in order to capture the night worms before the light 

 and heat of the day drive these into the earth ; they also 

 eat reptiles, mice, small birds, and garbage, swallowing the 

 small animals alive. In addition to these, which may be 

 considered as dainties in the places which the bustard 

 chiefly frequents, it eats vegetables ; and, except at parti- 

 cular seasons, trefoils and other succulent leaves; and the 

 tops of green corn and the grasses are its principal depend- 

 ence. In the autumn it lives a good deal upon seeds, and in 

 the winter upon roots. Its stomach is membranous, and of 

 great capacity. 



The pouch (which is wanting in the female, and opens 

 under the tongue in the male) has been conjectured to 

 answer many purposes, such as the reservoir of drink for the 

 bird that wears it, or for the female and the young ; or, 

 again, as a sort of water-engine which the bird discharges 

 against its foes. The fact of the bird not drinking, which 

 has been tolerably well ascertained, and the pouch being 

 found in the male only, are against the first of these con- 

 jectures, and the second is probably no better founded than 

 the old fable of the excellent sport that was procured by 

 coursing the young bustards with greyhounds, instead of 



VOL. i. F 



