GREAT BUSTARD. 41 7 



lished in 1798, says of the Great Bastard, "Sometimes 

 seen on our South Downs." Ray and Willughby mention 

 Royston Heath as a place frequented in their time by this 

 species ; and in reference to Bustards, as formerly inhabit- 

 ing that part of the country, 1 may state, that Mr. Joseph 

 Clarke, of Saffron Walden, gave me lately a copy of a 

 single paper of Addison's Spectator, No. CCCX., for 

 Tuesday, March 4th, 1712, containing an advertisement, of 

 which the following is an exact copy : " HEYDEN in ESSEX, 

 near WALDEN and ROYSTON, the seat of Sir Peter Soame, 

 Bart., deceased, situate on a gentle hill, with a very large 

 and pleasant prospect, fair gardens, canals, fish-ponds, dove 

 coate, and all sorts of offices without door, woods of large 

 timber, and where is all game in great plenty, even to the 

 Bustard and Pheasant, is to be let, furnished or unfurnished, 

 for 16 years. Enquire at Mr. Chus in Bartly-street, Pic- 

 cadily, or at Mr. Coopers, at the Blue Boar in Holborn." 

 To this I may add, that in Melbourne, the parish next 

 below Royston, there is a piece of land which is still known 

 by the name of Bustard-Leys ; and Dr. George Thackeray, 

 the Provost of King's College, Cambridge, sent me word 

 that Mr. Townley, the father of the present Mr. Greaves 

 Townley, who lives at Fulbourne, told him that for some 

 years after he first went to live there, Bustards regularly 

 bred on his estate. 



Formerly these birds were plentiful in the open tracts 

 about Newmarket Heath, and till within a few years 

 single individuals have occasionally been seen in that neigh- 

 bourhood. Among other references to Cambridgeshire, I 

 may mention that in January 1830 a young male was shot 

 on Shelford Common, and passed into the collection of Mr. 

 Henson, and in December 1832, a specimen was killed at 

 Caxton, and is preserved in the Museum of the Philosophi- 



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