io6 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



killed in reasonable numbers, and its capture in traps 

 made unlawful, the bird might have kept its place as a 

 native species down to the present time." 



Several attempts have been made by bird-loving 

 English landowners to re-introduce the Bustard, by 

 bringing over healthy birds from the Continent. As 

 many as sixteen were obtained on one occasion, only 

 about nine years ago. Their wing feathers were cut, 

 to prevent them flying away "over park, over pale," 

 and they were turned loose in a great wired-in tract of 

 eight hundred acres on the Norfolk border. But the 

 experiment does not seem to have been successful. 



It is more cheerful to turn to other countries where the 

 Great Bustard may still be seen, and is really plentiful. 



To do so we need travel no further than Germany, as 

 a writer in the Spectator, about a year ago, reminded us. 

 He tells us how he had a day's stalking (without a gun) in 

 Brandenburg, less than an hour's railway journey from 

 Berlin. He found himself on a great, bleak, sandy plain, 

 "mostly rough dry grass-land free from hedge or fence, 

 divided by small ditches," in which coarse rushes and the 

 brilliant yellow flowers of the marsh-marigold grew. A 

 few low sandhills here and there broke the general flatness, 

 and in the distance a group of ragged-looking trees — 

 birches and Scotch firs — stood out against the sky-line. 



Not a pretty country, you will say ; and indeed, it 

 cannot by any pretence be called so. Also it is cold and 

 wind-swept. Even in April there are but few signs of green 

 buds and new grass. 



" The Spring comes slowly np this way." 



But this is just the kind of country the Bustard loves. 

 And it was not long before the visitor T have referred to, 

 trundling across the plain in the low creaking hunting-cart. 



