The Zoologist — March, 1871. 2511 



pitched on the Down, and then flew off in the direction of Chit- 

 teine : they were flying about fifty feet from the ground. The bird 

 killed is a male, and in good plumage; weight fifteen pounds; 

 length from beak to end of tail forty inches ; spread of wing from 

 tip to tip seven feet, Berwick St. James is an adjoining village to 

 Maddington, where the other bird was shot that I sent you an 

 account of last week. I have not yet seen Mr. Pinckney's bird, 

 but the above particulars are to be relied upon, as Mr. Pinckney 

 brought them to me himself a few days ago. I omitted to tell you 

 we had quite a feast off Mr. Lywood's bird on Tuesday (eleven of 

 us) : we were unanimous in praising the excellence of the meat: in 

 flavour it more nearly approached golden plover than any other 

 bird we could compare \i lo.— Henry Blackmore ; Crane Street, 

 Salisbury, February 4, 1871. 



PS.— I saw Mr. Pinckney, the owner of the bird I wrote you 

 about on the 4th, a few days ago, and he told me the crop was full 

 of turnip-greens and the young blades of wheat; the gizzard was 

 quite empty : he invited some friends to partake of it, and they all 

 agreed in considering the flavour of the bird excellent, and 

 resembling teal or very good leveret. In the gizzard of Mr. Ly- 

 wood's bird, Dr. Blackmore, who dissected it, found two small 

 pieces of flint, one an inch long by half an inch wide, and the 

 other rather less, and some turnip-greens: its crop, I think I 

 named in my former letter, was empty. Dr. Blackmore has 

 preserved the breast-bone, &c. ; but I have not been able to see 

 him before posting this letter, to furnish you with the particulars as 

 to size, &.C.—H. B.; February 17, 1871. 



In Wiltshire.— Miex a lapse of some fifty years, a bustard has 

 been shot on Salisbury Plain. It was shot yesterday on Mr. Lv- 

 wood's farm, near Yarnborough Castle, an old Roman encampment, 

 about three miles N.E. of Wylye Station on the Salisbury branch 

 of the Great Western Railway. It was being exhibited in Salisbury 

 to-day, but I did not hear of it till I was on the point of leaving 

 the town. My informant tells me he thought it was a young hen 

 bird, as far as he could judge, and that there were two others in 

 company with it when shot. It is in the possession of Mr. Stevens, 

 of Salisbury, who I have no doubt will have it preserved, and add 

 it to his interesting museum. — John Wyndham ; Sutton Mande- 

 ville, Salisbury, January 24. — ' Field' of January 28. 



In Wiltshire. — A bustard was moved four times on this farm on 



