290 THE BIEDS OF DEVON. 



from our native avifauna, and we now know them only as 

 rare visitors from the Continent. The Little Bustard 

 comes to us, at uncertain intervals, as a winter migrant, 

 and one specimen of the Asiatic Macqueen's Bustard, one 

 of the ruffed species of this handsome genus, has occurred 

 in Lincolnshire. 



Great Bustard. Otis tarda, Linn. 



A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence in winter. 

 Even at the time when the Great Bustard was still an indigenous British 

 bird it could never have been more than a rare accidental visitor to the 

 S.W. of England, and was probably seen in Devonshire not more frequently 

 than it is at the present day. Anyone who knows the habits of this grand 

 bird would at once understand that our elevated Devonshire moorlands are 

 quite uusuited to it. The Great Bustard was never an abundant bird in 

 England, as is proved by its price in the reign of Queen Mary having been 

 ten shillings. There were a few on the AViltshire Downs and in the counties 

 of Hants and Dorset, many more in the great strongholds of the birds 

 to be found in Suffolk, Norfolk, and parts of Cambridgeshire, and 

 a few also in Lincolnshire and on the Yorkshire AVolds. The appearance 

 of Great Bustards in other parts of the country was only accidental. Col. 

 Montagu considered that Bustards were not properly migratory, and that 

 they only left their usual haunts when the weather was very severe and 

 the ground covered with snow ; they then would wander in search of food 

 in small Hocks (or ' droves,' as they were called in Norfolk) into cultivated 

 grounds, occasionally moving off to some distance. He states that in the 

 winter of 1708 one was killed near Plymouth ; two others were obtained 

 in Devonshire the following year, and in 1804 one brought into Plymouth 

 Market was sold for a shilling to a publican : this bird was cooked for 

 dinner for some " commercials," who, seeing that the flesh of the breast 

 was of two colours, a peculiarity with some of our most highly prized 

 game-birds, voted it unfit for food, and ordered it from the table. A fine 

 Great Bustard was shot by a farm labourer in the pai'ish of Brat ton 

 Clovelly, not far from the borders of Cornwall, on 31st Dec. 1851, and is 

 in the possession of Mr. Newton, Millaton House, Bridestow, who kindly 

 allowed us to see it. It is a very beautiful specimen of a male bird, and 

 was acquired, so we were told, for five shillings. Towards the end of 1870 

 this country was visited by a small immigration of Great Bustards from the 

 Continent, and specimens were procured in many districts. In North Devon 

 a flock of seven or eight was observed in a field atCroyde, where two were 

 shot. The survivors then flew a little distance to the south, alighting in 

 a field on the boundary of the two parishes of West Down and Braunton, 

 where Mr. Wells, of West Down, fired at them, and wounded one of them, 

 which was afterwards secured. The flock, from which three had now 



