GREAT BUSTARD. 



Otis tarda, ..... Lnrajstrs. 



Outarde larbue, ..... Temmtxck. 



Otis — A Bustard. Ous — An ear, on account of its quick hearing. Tarda — Slow or heavy (Quaere) in taking -svin°\ 



In the olden time, when modern innovations and modern farming were unknown, the 

 Great Bustard was a tolerably abundant bird on all the large open plains and clowns in 

 England. Unlike the Partridge, which multiplies as cultivation increases, the Bustard 

 has gradually faded away as the wild lands have been enclosed, and made useful to man ; 

 and to see one of these magnificent birds ornamenting the landscape, is now, alas ! an 

 occurrence of extreme rarity. Bailways and model farms are now to be found where, in 

 former times, the Bustard was almost the only tenant of the soil ; and, although few would 

 perhaps wish to resort again to those times, with all their, in those days unknown and 

 uncared for, inconveniences, still all must regret that this noble bird has been of necessity 

 sacrificed to modern wants and comforts. 



The Great Bustard appears to have been very generally distributed over the country; 

 thus there are records of its occurrence in Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Devonshire, 

 Dorsetshire, Lincolnshire, on Newmarket Heath, in various parts of Norfolk, on Eoyston 

 Henth, on Salisbury Plain, and other parts of Wiltshire; on the South Downs of Sussex; 

 in Suffolk, and in Yorkshire. 



With respect to its occurrence in this country, my brother, the Be v. F. 0. Morris, 

 received the following accounts, the first from E. H. Hebden, Esq., of Scarborough; the 

 other from Henry Woodall, Esq., of North Dalton : — Mr. Hebden says, "I think, to the 

 best of my recollection, it would be about the year 1811, that I first saw the five large 

 Bustards on Flixton "Wold ; that number continued there at least two years, when two of 

 them were shot. The three still continued on the same wold for at least one year, when 

 two of them disappeared, leaving the solitary bird, which, after a length of time, was 

 severely wounded by the gamekeeper of the late Sir William Strickland, and was found 

 some days afterwards in a turnip field near Hunmanby by the huntsman of the Scar- 

 borough Harriers, and secured." Mr. Woodall says of some other Bustards, "All the 

 information I can give you respecting the herd of Bustards is, that in the year 1816, 



