OCCASIONAL NOTES. 253 
extinct. My specimen was in company with eight of his fellows. At 
Verdun they saw another besides the one killed. It is during severe 
winters that this bird visits us. In 1850, in the month of February, 
during a long frost, two specimens which I possess were killed in our plain, 
a short distance from the Sadne. A female bird was given to me about 
fifteen or twenty years later. M. Mongeard, of Autun, to whose kindness 
1 am indebted for the specimen of 1880, has noticed in the journal 
‘L’Acclimatation’ for July, 1876, two captures made in 1875 in Le 
Morvan.’ To these observations of M.de Montessus, we may add that 
we have seeen this year two specimens of the Great Bustard in the flesh, 
one belonging to M. Lecuyer, of Carquebret, Manche, and the other to M. 
Capron, of l’Ile Adam, Seine et Oise. They were certainly killed in the 
neighbourhood of these two localities, although we have no precise details 
on the subject. Information less positive, however, enables us to state 
that the Great Bustard has been killed in the departments of Oise, of 
Seine et Marne, and of Tarn et Garonne. All these captures were made 
during the second half of December. We have ascertained also that, about 
the same time, some were observed in the Paris market. From this we 
may infer, therefore, that during the past winter the Great Bustard was 
unusually abundant in several parts of France.” In a succeeding number 
of ‘Le Naturaliste’ (March 15th), Mr. R. de Larelause, of Mont Louis, 
Vienna, writes :—‘ I have read in ‘ Le Naturaliste’ the ‘remarks of Dr. de 
Montessus concerning the Great Bustard (Otis tarda), to which I may add 
that on the 16th of January I saw at some distance a flock of birds which 
looked very large, and which I did not at first recognise. I approached 
them by going through a wood, and shot at them at about seventy yards. 
I was fortunate enough to bring one down, which I then recognised as a 
Great Bustard (Outarde barbue). It was a male bird, at least four years 
old, but extremely thin. It weighed, however, 7 kilogrammes 500 
grammes, and measured in extent of wings 2 metres 30. It was accom- 
panied by eighteen or nineteen others of its species. On the 5th of 
December another flock of five was seen by a poacher, who succeeded in 
killing one. I hastened to send and ask him for it, but it was too late, it 
was half plucked. On the 29th of January I received word that three 
enormous birds were on the same spot where I killed my Bustard some 
days previously. I went there, and found another lot of Great Bustards ; 
but this time I was not so fortunate. I wounded one, but without being 
able to secure it, as it managed to follow the others at a distance. On the 
last day of the shooting season one was seen at Poitiers by a sportsman, 
who shot at it, but did not kill it. I remarked that the direction of their 
course was from the north-east towards the south-west, that they made 
short flights of about fifteen to eighteen hundred yards, and after the first 
flight became much more wary.” From this it will be seen that during 
