144 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER III. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BABRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, Jan. 15, 1770. 



I T was no small matter of satisfaction to me to 

 find that you were not displeased with my 

 little methodus of birds. If there was any 

 merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its 

 punctuality. For many months I carried a 

 list in my pocket of the birds that were to be remarked, 

 and, as I rode or walked about my business, I noted each 

 day the continuance or omission of each bird's song; so - 

 that I am as sure of the certainty of my facts as a man can 

 be of any transaction whatsoever. 



I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which 

 you put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner 

 that I am able. Perhaps Eastwick, and its environs, where 



being all more or less frequented by it; but in every one of these locali- 

 ties it had ceased to exist before the last of the race of British bustards 

 fell victims to the advancement of agricultural enterprise in this (Nor- 

 folk) and the adjoining county." STEVENSON'S Birds of Norfolk, 

 vol. ii. p. 2. It has long been extinct in Scotland, the occurrence of 

 probably the last Scottish straggler is recorded by Dr. Fleming in his 

 "History of British Animals," p. 115, where he states that one was 

 shot in 1803 in Morayshire. As regards Ireland, the great bustard is 

 included by Smith, in his " History of Cork," as one of the birds of the 

 county of Cork in 1749, but if ever it was really found in Ireland, it has 

 long since become extinct there. 



Our knowledge of the supposed gular pouch in the male bustard, 

 originally due to a British anatomist, Dr. James Douglas, was first 

 made known in 1740 by Albin, in his " Nat. Hist. Brit. Birds," iii. 

 p. 36. Since that date many have been the contributions published, 

 and various the opinions expressed, on this very curious subject. In 

 the " Ibis " for 1862, pp. 107-27, will be found a very full and interest- 

 ing account by Professor Newton of all that had been previously pub- 

 lished on the matter, supplemented with observations of his own, and 

 an important communication on the same subject by Dr. Cullen is 

 given in the "Ibis," 1865, p. 143. ED. 



