OTIDID.E. 293 



Little Bustard. Otis tetrax, Linn. 



A casual visitoi', of somewhat rare occurrence, during the autumn and 

 winter months. 



The Little iJustard is a common species in the south of Europe which 

 occasionally visits this country in the winter-time, December being the 

 month ill which most specimens have been obtained, and turnip-lields the 

 favourite localities. Hence, in some places, the bird bears the name of the 

 " Turnip Duck." Examples of males, in the handsome adult plumage, have 

 never been secured in the United Kingdom. At least ten Little Bustards, 

 all females or immature birds, have been recorded from Devonshire ; one 

 ot' these, shot at Eraunton, December 23rd, 1880, is in our collection. 



A female was shot at Torrington, North Devoa, in Dec. ISOl, and was taken fo 

 Plymouth Market; and another, also a t'eaiale, was seen by Montagu in Oct. 1810 in a 

 turnip-field in Devonshire (Orn. Diet., SuppL). One was shot on Creacombe Moor, 

 near Exiuoor, in 182U (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 319) ; and one near Bigbury 

 {id. Eowe's Peramb. Dartmoor, App. p. 234) ; one at Ashburton (A. Gr. C. T.). Two 

 females occurred near Ivingsbridge between 184U and 1847 (II. N., Zool. 1847, p. 1695). 

 A female was shot by Lieut. I'earce, Feb. 5th, 1864, on the high open land adjoining 

 the sea-coast adjacent to the Start Lighthouse (II. N., M8. Notes, and Zool. 1864, 

 p. 9U3U). A female was killed in a turnip-field near North Tawton, Dec. (ith; and 

 another female in the parish of Erauiiton, Dec. 23rd, 1880 (J. G-., Zool. 1881, p. 53 ; 

 G. F. M., p. 58). It is very remarkable that specimens of both the Great and Little 

 Bustard should have been offered for sale in Plymouth Market in the same year (1804). 

 Most, if not all, of the examples which have occurred in this couniy were females (_or 

 perhaps immatui'e birds), but in the ' Synopsis of the Newcasile Museum,' by Gei^r^e 

 Townshend Fox (1827), mention is made on the authority of ilr. Henry Mewburn, of 

 St. Germans, Cornwall, of a male that " was bought in Plymouth Market, and dressed 

 at one of the inns there as a pheasant for the travellers' table." Montagu (1813) gives 

 a Tersi<jn of thi.s story in connection with the Great Buslard killed in 1804, whilst of 

 the Little Bustard killed in the same year hediBtinctiy says it was a, female and " was 

 sold lor a female Black Grouse." 



In Cornwall 'Sir. llodd reports a dozen Little Bustards, and remarks 

 that several occurred in various parts of the kingdom in 1875, showing 

 that a small immigration must have taken place. In the winter of 185;i 

 several are stated by him to have been brought into the market at 

 Penzance, and sold there as " Silver Pheasants '' ! After this rather exten- 

 sive list from Devon and Cornwall, it is a little singular that we possess no 

 knowledge of a single .Somerset specimen, and in Dursetshire ^Ir. Maiisel- 

 Pleydell knew of only one, which was in his own collection, and was shot 

 Dec. 20th, 1853, on Fossil Common, Winfrith. 



