348 Struthionidce. 



does not arrive at maturity till the fourth year, previous to which 

 no sign of the pouch is to be seen ; also that it is the opinion of 

 some well qualified by experience to judge, that it is only to be 

 found in the breeding season, after which it gradually diminishes 

 in size, till it is hardly perceptible in the winter. If this is (as I 

 believe) correct, and the presence of the gular pouch is confined 

 only to old male birds, and to them in the breeding season alone, 

 then its absence on examination of younger birds, and at other 

 periods of the year, is at once accounted for. 



And now I come to the history, so far as I can ascertain it, 

 of the Great Bustard in Wiltshire ; observing by the way that in 

 other countries we can trace it back to very remote times, for its 

 form appears among the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and many well- 

 known ancient writers have thought it not unworthy of mention. 

 Athenseus, Plutarch, ^Elian,0ppian, Xenophon, Aristotle and Pliny, 

 are some of those who have described it, and though much fable 

 is mixed up with their accounts, the description is sufficiently 

 clear to enable us to identify the bird. But to pass from these 

 Bustards of ancient Greece and Asia, to those of ancient Britain, 

 when the Celtic tribes roamed over the downs, and Abury and 

 Stonehenge were in their glory, then this bird flourished on the 

 unbroken Plain, and doubtless revelled in the broadty-spreading 

 unreclaimed wastes throughout this county. Its name is pre- 

 served as ' Yr araf ehedydd ;' but to what extent it abounded, or 

 how far it was looked upon as game, or how much it was the 

 object of pursuit in those days of flint arrowheads, does not so 

 clearly appear. To come down, however, to a much later period, 

 from the earliest records we have of it in comparatively modern 

 days viz., three hundred years since the price it fetched proved 

 it to be no very common fowl. Indeed, I do not think it could 

 ever have been very plentiful in England : its large size and 

 the excellent meat it furnished must always have caused it to 

 be greatly sought after on account of its commercial value ; and 

 though it is puzzling to imagine how the sportsman of old 

 contrived to bring about its capture, that they did obtain it 

 somehow is certain, from the lists of game, and the bills of 



