Great Bustard. 339 



both species to our shores. As both in flight and running their 

 speed is remarkable, naturalists have been much puzzled to 

 account for the name so commonly assigned to them, as our word 

 'Bustard,' the French ' Outarde,' and the Spanish ' Abutarda,' 

 as also the universal scientific name for the Great Bustard, tarda; 

 but in an admirable paper on that bird in Eraser's Magazine for 

 September, 1854, supposed to be by Mr. Broderip, Albertus is 

 quoted as accounting for these specific names in the following 

 manner : ' Bistarda avis est bis vel ter saltum dans, priusquam 

 de humo elevetur, unde et eis nomen factum ;'* and this alleged 

 habit of the bird, giving two or three leaps before it rises from 

 the ground, and thus recalling the action of ascending a stair- 

 case, is mentioned as being likewise the origin of its German 

 name, Trapp-gans, or ' Stair Goose ;' whence also the quaint 

 distich : 



' The big-boaned Bustard then, whose body beares that size, 

 That he against the wind must runne, ere he can rise.' 



Pliny, too, says of these birds : ' Quas Hispania aves tardas ap- 

 pellat, Graecia otidas.' 



Birds of this family are accustomed to pack in the autumn, 

 and are generally supposed to be polygamous, though (as in the 

 species last described) this is now disputed. The generic name 

 Otis is said to be derived from the Greek, meaning 'eared/ or 

 ' with long ear feathers ;' but I fail to see how this applies to the 

 Bustards. 



132. GREAT BUSTARD (Otis tarda). 



Once the pride of our Wiltshire Downs, and which held this 

 county as its stronghold in Great Britain, now, alas ! driven out 

 from among us by the march of cultivation, and only seen at 

 long intervals as a rare visitor. It was my good fortune more 

 than thirty years ago to be instrumental in recording the capture 



It is only fair to add that, according to Mr. Howard Saunders, some 

 recent authorities object to this derivation, and in the list published by 

 the B.O.U. Committee tarda is said to be a Celtic or Basque word, having 

 no relation to tardus, ' slow,' though what it does mean is not stated. 



222 



