366 Struthionidce. 



was, " I am seventy- two, and never have ; but I have heard my 

 father speak of them as having been quite common in his 

 youth." I hope no sportsman or naturalist will think it neces- 

 sary to shoot them, as they may breed. Viator, April 4, 1867.' 

 Mr. Morres is not disposed to put much credence in this account, 

 because of the late date assigned to their appearance, whereas 

 the visits of this bird to the British Isles are generally in late 

 autumn or winter ; but, for my part, I do not think the Little 

 Bustard is so rare in this country as some imagine, though, as a 

 shy, timid bird, and a lover of solitary places, it keeps as far as 

 possible from the haunts of man. Mr. Howard Saunders says 

 that altogether between sixty and seventy have been recorded 

 as visitors to the British Islands.* These are all specimens which 

 have been duly reported and chronicled at headquarters; but 

 nobody can tell how many others may have escaped notice, or, 

 at all events, have lacked an historian or biographer to report 

 their capture. Certainly it does not include three specimens 

 which were shot on different occasions in the north of Norfolk, 

 near Lynn, by my father-in-law, the Rev. T. T. Upwood, two of 

 which are still in the collection which he left at his seat, Lovell's 

 Hall, in the parish of Terrington, and the third is in my own 

 collection in Wiltshire. These occurrences, however, took place 

 between forty and fifty years ago, when the neighbourhood of 

 the Wash presented a much wilder aspect than it does now, and 

 when ornithological prizes were continually met with, the very 

 mention of which makes the collectors' mouth water in these 

 degenerate days. 



I found this species extremely common in Portugal ; indeed, 

 it is constantly served at table under the title of ' Pheasant/ 

 So plentiful is it that the markets were daily supplied with it in 

 some numbers, and its abundance is manifest from the price I 

 paid for the finest adult male I could select, amounting to no 

 more than 200 reis, which, however large the figure may seem to 

 the uninitiated in Portuguese coinage, represents only tenpence 

 halfpenny of our money. In skinning this and other specimens 

 Fourth edition of YarrelPs 'British Birds,' vol. iii., p. 218. 



