Birds. 5279 



ascertained some of the particulars respecting the appearance of two great bustards in 

 Cambridgeshire, last spring, would have addressed to the ' Zoologist' a few remarks, 

 to corroborate, and, in some instances, correct the account which my friend 

 Mr. A. F. Sealy published some months ago (Zool. 5063) ; but, finding they are 

 Dot disposed to come forward in the matter, I venture to do so, conceiving that 

 it is desirable that no particulars relative to tlie occurrence of so interesting a bird 

 should remain unpublished. It is beyond all doubt that two great bustards for some 

 time in the early part of the present year (1856) frequented some open fields in the 

 Burwell and Swaffham Fens. The statements as to when they were first observed 

 differ considerably, but Mr. F. Godman and Mr. A. Hamond, who are the most 

 competent to judge, from their having many times visited the locality and having 

 diligently inquired respecting them of persons employed there in field labour, some of 

 whom had seen one or both birds, believe that it was towards the end of January, and 

 not, as Mr. Sealy inclines to think, " about Christmas," that they were first observed, 

 and this accords with the impressions I also received when prosecuting similar 

 inquiries on the spot. It appears to us that it was not until the 2(hh of February 

 that the one Mr. Sealy mentions was shot at and possibly wounded, for, as far as can 

 be ascertained, a single bird only was afterwards observed, which usually frequented 

 one or other of some small fields of cole-seed, and was more than once approached by 

 labouring men, whose presence it seemed to disregard until they came within shooting 

 distance, but it was constantly disturbed by professional " gunners," several of whom 

 were in daily pursuit of it. On the 1st of March one of them shot at it, but as the 

 attempt on its life was made with an ordinary gun, at a distance of a hundred and 

 fifty yards, there is no reason to suppose it was wounded, yet I believe it was never 

 subsequently seen. Setting aside the accounts of those who actually saw the birds, 

 and who described them with quite sufficient accuracy for one to determine the species 

 to which they belonged, all doubt was removed as to the one which remained, by the 

 discovery of a great many feathers amongst the cole-seed, some of which were shown 

 to Mr. Gould and Mr. Yarrell, both of whom expressed very decided opinions on the 

 subject. On the 3rd of March, two days after the bird was last seen, I myself found, 

 in a piece of cole-seed in Swaffham Fen, many of its foot-prints in the soil, which was 

 in a very dry state at the time. These marks were about six inches apart, and could 

 be traced for a considerable distance, while every here and there the ground was 

 much trampled down, as if the bird had there stopped to feed. The feathers found 

 were principally from the upper wing- coverts, but I saw one scapular, and picked up 

 others from the breast and sides of the neck. Several reports have since been 

 circulated relative to the death of this last bird, but all have as yet happily proved 

 unfounded ; it is to be hoped, therefore, that both (or at least one) returned whence 

 they came, and escaped the fate of their unfortunate predecessor who met his death at 

 Hungerford. Mr. Sealy's statement that these birds were "a pair," is, I think, in 

 the physical sense of the word, erroneous, for in no instance was any disparity of size 

 mentioned as existing in the two birds by the many observers of them, some of whom 

 were questioned with special reference to the point: I incline to think they were both 

 of the same sex, probably females. I could not discover that either of the birds had 

 ever been seen in Wicken Fen, as mentioned by Mr. Sealy, and, from the nature of 

 the ground, I should think it highly improbable that they ever put foot in it, 

 Wicken Fen being covered with sedge, and still almost in its natural state, whereas 

 Burwell and Swaffham Fens have been drained and are now arable land. It is quite 



