375 



visited this parish, and alighted in a field at Croyde. They were seen by Mr. William Smith, 

 who followed and shot one, which weighed upwards of nine pounds, and was much admired. 

 The others soon took their flight to the west, and have not since made their appearance.' 

 Mr. Gatcombe also says that, when at the railway-station, he met a man with some feathers in 

 his hat ; and on speaking to him concerning them, he replied, pointing to one of them, ' This 

 here, sir, belongs to one of them Turkey Buzzards.' This notion of Wild Turkeys seems to have 

 prevailed generally in North Devon ; for, as one of my labourers has a brother who is a game- 

 keeper somewhere near Barnstaple, I got him to write to his brother to glean any information 

 about the Bustards : his reply was that he had heard of the birds, but that they were Wild 

 Turkeys." 



The specimen killed near Feltham, in Middlesex, on the 29th of January, 1871, I had the 

 satisfaction of examining in the flesh when it was brought up to the Zoological Society's rooms 

 by Mr. Tegetmeier, who exhibited it at a meeting of that Society. 



In Scotland, Mr. Kobert Gray writes, "it has long been extinct. As a resident species it 

 appears to have been entirely confined to Berwickshire ; it is thus referred to by Hector Boece, 

 who flourished about 350 years ago : — ' Besides these, we have another foule in Mers, more 

 strange and uncouth than all these aforementioned, called a Gustard, fully so great as a Swan, 

 but in colour of feathers and tast of flesh little differing from a Partridge. Howbeit, these birds 

 are not verie common, neither to be seene in all places ; such also is their qualitie, that if they 

 perceive their egs to have been touched in their absence by man's hand (which lie common on 

 the bare earth), they forsake those nests and lie in other places.' The occurrence of probably 

 the last Scottish straggler is briefly recorded in Fleming's ' British Animals ' in these words : — 

 ' One was shot in 1803, in Murrayshire, by William Young, Esq., of Borough Head.' " 



In Ireland it was, according to Thompson, enumerated by Smith (1749) as one of the birds 

 of the county of Cork, but it has long been extinct. 



It does not appear to have ever occurred in Norway; but, according to Nilsson, it used 

 formerly to breed in many open localities in Sweden, where it is now never met with. " About 

 sixty or seventy years ago (1790-1800) it used to occur on Skanor heath and at Cimmered; but 

 it is now only met with very rarely on the sand-plains round Ahus and Ljungby. It arrives in 

 April, and is then met with in small flocks ; and before leaving in the autumn they collect 

 together in large flocks, and near Ahus considerable numbers have occasionally been seen 

 together." This was written by Professor Nilsson some years ago; but it is doubtful if this 

 species now occurs in Sweden. Mr. Meves, indeed, writes to me stating that he has reason to 

 believe it is quite extinct in Skane. In Finland, Professor Malmgren informs me, it has to 

 his knowledge been obtained but twice, once at Tenala, in 60° N. lat., and once near Ija, in 65-^-°. 

 In Northern Eussia it does not appear to be found, though, as below stated, it is common in 

 Central and Southern Kussia. Mr. L. Taczanowski writes that it is rare in Poland, where a few 

 breed near Zamoso and Miedzyrzeiz, in the Government of Lublin, and near Lowicz and Blonie, 

 in the Warsaw Government, as also near Wyszogrod, in the Government of Plock ; in other parts 

 of Poland it is only met with occasionally during migration. When in Pomerania I have seen it 

 on several occasions, and obtained several eggs when near Stettin, where it appears to be by no 

 means of unfrequent occurrence. Borggreve states that it is a partial migrant in the central and 



