346 Struthionidce. 



Thornton, who once rented Spye Park, sported in Wiltshire, he 

 occasionally flew his hawks at Bustards, the apparent slowness of 

 that bird when seen at a distance tempting him to the trial ; but 

 the hawks had no chance. 



There is another point which has been no less warmly disputed 

 by modern ornithologists, in regard to the existence of a so-called 

 gular pouch. From the days of Daines Barrington and Edwards, 

 such a pouch or bag between the under side of the tongue and 

 the lower mandible of the bill was supposed to exist, and to 

 supply the bird with drink in dry places when distant from 

 water. This statement was accepted and confidently repeated 

 by Bewick, Montagu, Selby, and Yarrell. Subsequent research, 

 however, and careful anatomical observations, afterwards shook 

 Mr. Yarrell's belief in this gular pouch, and in this he was sup- 

 ported by the old French naturalists, with Cuvier at their head, 

 as well as by our own Professor Owen of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. The question, however, is still an open one, with, 

 warm advocates on both sides: 'et adhuc sub judice lis est.' 

 When I was in Portugal, in the spring of 1868, 1 was so fortunate 

 as to procure a magnificent male bird in the flesh, which was most 

 liberally given me by an English friend, and whose body, after 1 had 

 taken off the skin, for several days formed a large item in the bill 

 of fare of the Hotel Braganza at Lisbon; the guests of every degree 

 at the table-d'hote and in private apartments partaking of the 

 dish, from the British Minister and his family on the first-floor 

 to the cook-boys in the area. This bird weighed 30 Ib. 

 English,* and is the finest example of 0. tarda I have ever seen. 

 After being brought down with shot, the coup de grace had been 

 given it by cutting its throat with a knife, as is the approved 

 method of Portuguese sportsmen ; it had also been a good deal 

 torn by dogs; but though thus ill-used, blood-stained and 

 damaged in the outset, and though it arrived in England covered 

 with mildew for I sent it home direct by sea it has been 

 admirably cleaned and mounted by Mr. Baker, the well-known 



* Lord Lilford pajs that a fine specimen brought to him in Spain 

 weighed 32 Ib. Ib's for 188G, p. 382. 



