Mr. Aubyn Trevor-Battye,



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than usual one of the hens was heard by the gardener flying. She

flew the length of the enclosure, passed over the high wire

netting, over a run inhabited by five eager greyhounds (into

which most mercifully she did not drop) and disappeared from

view. The alarm given, I picked up a cloak and ran out. Three

men and I scoured the land that lay between the garden and the

river half a mile away. In particular we spent much time in

searching every yard of a rough tussocky hummocky stretch in

which even an Ostrich might be invisible. All this to no purpose.

But as we returned disappointed we suddenly came upon her in

the only spot we had not yet searched, in a rough bit of grass

by the side of the cricket ground not 150 paces from the garden

fence. There she was, flattened down on the ground with

outstretched neck, and curiously invisible till you come right

upon her. The cloak was dropped over her, she was carried

back and both birds were immediately pinioned.


On February nth, 1908, I received from His Grace the

Duke of Bedford the kind gift of a male Great Bustard, and as I

hope that before long he may be the father of a family I may here

say a little about him.


I consider him the finest example of this noble species I

have ever seen in captivity. I have seen larger birds (the male

in the Zoo. is larger) but for vigour, smartness and hard condition

I have never seen his equal. He has been in fighting humour ever

since he came, and although after the breeding season he lost

his ruff and whiskers, he has kept up his display all through the

year. Even on that Wednesday, the coldest day of the year,

taken with a fit of vanity he reversed his feathers over his back

and turned about like a weather vane.


From the first he has been extremely bold, and has never,

like the others, been the victim of groundless alarm. At night

when it threatens wind and w r et we always walk the others into

their shelter. But this male bird has never allowed himself to be

driven ; lie stands his ground and will not budge an inch. We

have two ways of getting him into the shed ; either by offering

him a cap, on to which he immediately fastens, and so is led

along, or by allowing him to seize a corner of one’s jacket or

fold of one’s knickerbockers, when he will push one back and



