THE BUSTARD. 



HE is a bird of the heaths and downs, of ojDen spaces 

 and wide horizons. Where the great rolling up- 

 lands heave themselves against the sky-line, 

 rising clear of the copses and plantations that lie snugly 

 in the hollows — where the winds have full sweep, and 

 the furze and the hawthorns are twisted and "bitten," 

 and the grass is short under foot, there is the home of the 

 Bustard. 



The home — but alas ! the bird itself is there no longer, 

 if we mean England. It belongs to the list of beautiful 

 and curious creatures that man has done his best to scare 

 away or exterminate. For some of these, it is true, there 

 is no longer room in our crowded island, but scores of 

 shy birds might make their home again in our waste 

 lands, if we would only refrain from shooting at them or 

 robbing their nests. 



The Great Bustard is one of these. He was the 

 largest of British birds, and to any landscape he would be 

 an ornament. His length is from three to three and a 

 half feet, and his weight is sometimes as much as thirty 

 pounds. With head held well erect, he struts around 

 with no little dignity, and when he lifts himself into the 

 air he shows an expanse of wings no less than eight feet 

 across. 



His colouring is handsome, too. Head, grey ; back, 

 " chestnut buff, barred with black " ; the wings white and 

 black ; breast, banded with chestnut and grey ; the rest 



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