Great Bustard. 361 



visit of a Great Bastard to Wiltshire ; and in all that time but 

 two stragglers are reported to have been seen in the British Isles, 

 viz., one in Yorkshire in 1864, and one in Norfolk in 1867; but 

 in 1871 there was quite an immigration to England of Great 

 Bustards, which were said by some to have been driven across the 

 Channel through alarm at the heavy firing in France during the 

 Franco-German War ; but whatever the motive which impelled 

 them, it is certain that quite a numerous body came over to this 

 country, and specimens were obtained in Middlesex, in Northum- 

 berland, in Devonshire, in Somersetshire, and in Wiltshire. 



As regards those which visited this county, I have to thank 

 many kind correspondents for early information on the subject, 

 and I now proceed to put together the story as I have gathered 

 it from the several accounts with which I have been furnished. 

 The Rev. Canon F. Bennett, Rector of Maddington and Shrewton, 

 wrote under date January 27th, 1871, ' You will be interested in 

 hearing that the Bustards have returned to the Plain. A flock 

 of seven large birds, thought to be wild geese, had been observed 

 on the downs, and no particular notice was taken of them. On 

 Monday last, however (23rd inst.), Stephen Smith, who was bird- 

 keeping near the Tile Barn, on the Manor Farm, in this parish, 

 saw four of these large strange birds flying low, and he killed 

 one of them at the distance of 132 yards with the marble with 

 which his gun was loaded. The three other birds are, I 

 believe, still about. The bird which was killed is a hen 

 Bustard, and it has been presented by Mr. Lywood, the tenant 

 of the Manor Farm, to the Salisbury and South Wilts Mu- 

 seum.' The Rev. Canon Goddard, Vicar of Hilmarton, also 

 kindly wrote to me under date January 28th : ' My son Edward 

 reports that on the railway en route to Winchester there was on 

 Wednesday last a man with the body of a Great Bustard killed at 

 Maddington, one of the three seen there.' That of course would 

 be the bird whose capture Canon Bennett reported. And a third 

 notice I had from the late Mr. E. T. Stevens of Salisbury, for 

 some time my colleague as Hon. Sec. to the Wiltshire Archaeo- 

 logical and Natural History Society, who wrote on January 25th, 



