The Zoologist— March, 1870. 2063 



Nesting of the Great Bustard in Enyland. — 'Slx. Moor's notice in the February 

 number of ihe ' Zoologist,' on the occurreuce of the great bustard in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, more ihan half a century ago, is extremely interesting; and 1 bhuukl much 

 like to know whether the case of bustards he refers to, then in the possession of ihe 

 Rev. K. Hammond, of Swaffham, Norfolk, is still in existence? Now and again 

 stray bustards may be killed in England, but iheir days as a breeding species in this 

 country are past. It would therefore be as well to put on record every authentic 

 instance of their nesting in Great Britain ; and in the hope that some varied informa- 

 tion oil the subject may be elieiled, I will add that there is now in the Museum at 

 Scarborough, amongst a very poor oological collection, a faded, cracked, time-worn 

 egg of the great bustard : the interest attached to it is, that it is an authentic English- 

 laid egg. A note alongside the egg states that it was found by Mr. James Dowker, at 

 North Dallon, in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1810,* and was presented to the 

 Museum in March, 1840, by Dr. John Bury, then its Secretary. The note adds that 

 Mr. Dowker shot at the same time, and near the egg, a male and female great bustard, 

 with the right and left barrels of his gun. Mr. Roberts, the Curator of the Scar- 

 borough Museum, told me that the late Mr. John Wolley was so interested in 

 this egg that he offered him a considerable sura of money for it, if it could be 

 parted with by the Museum. I was thinking last year, when I looked at the Scar- 

 borough Museum egg of Otis tarda, that perhaps it was the only egg of its species, 

 laid in England, now extant: however, Mr. Moor's interesting recollection of Mr. 

 Hammond's case, with its young one and egg and three adults, shows otherwise. 

 I trust that these notices may induce other readers of the ' Zoologist' to add to our 

 information on this subject. — H. W. Feilden ; Chester Castle. 



Great Bustards on the Yorkshire Wolds. — The notice of bustards in the counties of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, by Mr. E. J. Moor (Zool. S. S. 2024), is of much interest. The 

 Yorkslflre Wolds were also formerly a resort of these birds, and an egg now in the 

 ScarboroughMuseum was found on a moor near Salton, in Yorkshire, in 1816,* and a 

 bird {Otis tarda, Linn.), supposed to be the last, was killed by the Scarborough hounds 

 in the same year, and brought to Scarborough and cooked at a supper given by the 

 the hunt, at the George Inn. Mr. Williamson thinks the egg in the Museum may 

 have belonged to this bird, as it was found about the same time and on the same moor. 

 The fine pair of great bustards in the Scarborough Museum were purchased of 

 Mr. Reid, of Doncaster, and presented to the Museum many years ago by the late 

 Dr. Murray, of Scarborough. I may add that a great bustard was found, only a few 

 years since, dead and floating in the sea close to the shore, near Bridlington, iu York- 

 shire; and Mr. Williamson, who was curator for twenty-seven years to the Scarborough 

 Museum, remembers that, when a young man, he hud heard of bustards being seen 

 four or five together on the Wo\ds.—Alwin S. Bell. 



Land Rail found alive in a Pea-rick in January.— Through the kindness of a 

 gentleman in the Tedworih Hunt, I was informed that some labourers, while engaged 

 taking in a pea-rick, in the parish of Monxton, had discovered and captured a live 

 land rail {Gallinula crex) in the centre of the rick ; also that the bird had passed into 



* The reader will please observe the discrepancy in dates: both are clearly 

 written. The same egg is evidently refeired to. — E. N. 



