371 



"Nearly a century and a half later Sir Thomas Browne (who died in 1682) describes the 

 Bustard as ' not unfrequent in the champian and fieldy part of the county,' an expression which 

 rather conveys the idea that they were not particularly numerous even at that period ; and as, 

 unfortunately, we possess no further notes of its existence in these parts for the next hundred 

 years at least, we come at once to the commencement of the present century, when the gradual, 

 but inevitable, extinction of the species forms the burthen of the story of each successive writer. 

 ' These noble birds,' wrote Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear in 1825, ' still continue to breed in the 

 open parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, though they are becoming much scarcer than formerly. The 

 places most frequented by them are Westacre, in the former county, and Icklingham, in the 

 latter. At both places they are carefully preserved by the proprietors. In the summer of 1819 

 nineteen of them were observed together at Westacre.' From that time, however, they appear 

 to have gradually, but surely, decreased in both counties, it being a rare event to see more than 

 two or three in company; and in 1832 there is reason to believe that a nest found on the borders 

 of Thetford warren was the last known in Suffolk, and a single bird observed later in the summer 

 of the same year on Icklingham Heath the sole survivor in that once noted locality. Mr. Newton 

 thus refers to the appearance of this solitary bird, ' Mr. Thornhill, of Riddlesworth Hall, in July 

 or August 1832, while walking one hot day across Icklingham Heath, came upon a place where 

 it was evident that some large bird had been rolling and dusting itself in the sand. On exami- 

 nation he found, close by, a Bustard's feather ; and looking round him he perceived a hen Bustard 

 not many yards off; and this is the last well-authenticated instance of the occurrence of this fine 

 bird in Suffolk that I am aware of.' 



" The late Mr. J. D. Hoy, who, writing in November 1832, recorded the occurrence of the 

 last Suffolk nest in the ' Magazine of Natural History for 1833' (p. 150), also states that the old 

 bird carried off her young in safety, and that a male bird and two females had been recently seen 

 together on the same heath. Subsequently Mr. Newton ascertained from the late Mr. J. D. 

 Salmon (who, with Mr. Hoy, saw the young bird that was hatched from this nest when about 

 half-grown) that the nest was situated in a field of rye, into which the old and young retired 

 when disturbed. 



" Norfolk now remained the last of our English counties to reckon the Bustard amongst its 

 resident species ; nor was this privilege to be long enjoyed. 



"In the spring of 1833, as recorded by Mr. Salmon (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1834, p. 458), 'three 

 females resorted to Great Massingham Heath for incubation. Their eggs consisted of two pairs 

 and a single one. These were taken away under the impression that, as there was no male bird, 

 they were good for nothing;' but this was possibly a mistaken impression, inasmuch as in Spain, 

 where they still abound, the cock birds in Andalucia are known to part company from the hens 

 in the month of May, and, leaving the latter on the uplands, betake themselves to the marshes. 

 Still, however, to quote once more from Mr. Newton's notes, a small flock of hen Bustards, 

 including the parents of the eggs mentioned, continued to occupy the country around Swaffham 

 for some years longer; but there is no record of any cock bird having been observed. It is 

 therefore a sad reflection when we think that had a male bird been procured from the Continent, 

 and liberated in that district, the Great Bustard might still have been an indigenous bird in this 

 country. 



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