THE BUSTARD ' 105 



of range. ... I believe such a number of Bustards will 

 never again be seen in England together." 



Yet in a Dictionary of Natural History, dated 1785, the 

 compiler speaks of these birds being " frequently seen in 

 flocks of more than fifty, on the extensive downs of 

 Salisbury Plain, on Newmarket and Royston Heaths," and 

 elsewhere. 



But gradually the numbers grew less. Montagu, 

 in 1813, was told by the Wiltshire shepherds that 

 they had not seen any Bustards in their favourite 

 haunts for two or three years past. In 1819, it was 

 considered a noteworthy event when nineteen Bustards 

 were seen together at Westcape, in Norfolk, and steps 

 were taken by the landowner to protect them. About 

 that time it was reckoned that there were only two 

 " droves " in the county. The last nest made within the 

 county borders seems to have been one that was found on 

 a farm at Great Massingham, just before the beginning of 

 Queen Victoria's reign. An egg taken from that nest is 

 said to be still preserved as a curiosity. Two Bustards 

 were killed a couple of years later in the same county, and 

 these are supposed to have been the last English-bred 

 specimens of this beautiful bird. 



How was it, we ask, that the Bustard could not survive 

 in England ? Well, to begin with, its great size made it 

 easy to espy. Then, its favourite haunts began to be less 

 lonely, and, in some cases, to be enclosed and planted with 

 trees. And where it laid its eggs in the corn-lands more 

 careful farming led to the nests being discovered and 

 destroyed. 



Mr. Charles Dixon, the well-known writer on birds, 

 gives it as his opinion that "if the Bustard had been 

 carefully preserved during the nesting season, and only 



