1 8 NOTES ON CERTAIN BIRDS 



[Fol. 14.] Bistardae or Bustards^' are not vnfrequent 

 in the champain & feildie part of this country a large 

 Bird accounted a dayntie dish, obseruable in the strength 



detecting a wounded Bittern, even when marked down in short, recently 

 mown grass and flags. The spring cry of the Bittern is mentioned by Robert 

 Marsham in his unpublished journal nineteen times, between the years 

 1739 and 1775, ^s first heard at Stratton Strawless, generally between the 

 iSth of March and the 15th of April ; and it was on the 14th of the latter 

 month that Benjamin Stillingfleet records it in the "Calendar of Flora" 

 as heard in the same locality in 1755. He does not describe the note, but 

 uses the words " makes a noise." Marsham, however, on one occasion, 

 in 1750, a very early year, records it on the 20th of February. As a once 

 familiar sound, but one which will probably never again be heard here 

 under purely normal conditions, these dates seem worthy of recording. 



^ The last of the Norfolk and therefore certainly the last of the 

 British-bred Bustards, was killed in May, 1838 ; those which have since 

 occurred in this country were Continental immigrants. An exhaustive 

 history of the extinction of this bird will be found in Stevenson's " Birds 

 of Norfolk," vols. 2 and 3. The Bustard, although found in some num- 

 bers, associated in small flocks or "droves" in the few localities which it 

 frequented in Great Britain, was probably never a very numerous species. 

 The following extract from one of Browne's letters to his son Edward, 

 dated April 30lh, and written probably in 1681, shows that he was 

 on the verge of discovering an anatomical peculiarity in this family 

 of birds, which in after years gave rise to much controversy. He says, 

 "yesterday I had a cock Bustard sent me from beyond Thetford. I 

 never did see such a vast thick neck : the crop was pulled out, butt as [a] 

 turkey hath an odde large substance without, so hath this within the inside 

 of the skinne, and the strongest and largest neckbone of any bird in 

 England. This I tell you, that if you meet with one you may further 

 observe it." The presence of a gular pouch in the Bustard was first 

 demonstrated by James Douglas, a Scotch Physician, in 1740, and it 

 appears to be fully developed only in the adult male bird, and at the 

 breeding season. Hence, although it has undoubtedly been found on several 

 occasions, the frequent unsuccessful searches for it under unfavourable 

 conditions led to much scepticism as to its existence. The use of this 

 singular appendage is still a moot point, but it seems probable that it has 

 to do with "voice production," and assists in the remarkable "showing 

 off" exhibited by the male bird in the breeding season. Pennant, in his 

 ^'British Zoology," 1768, i., p. 215, gives a sentimental account of its use, 

 and an exaggerated estimate of its proportions. In the Tables of Dietary 

 referred to at p. 6 (note) anie, the Bustard is mentioned as in season from 

 October to May. 



