JTOTES AND QUERIES. 105 



servation, and, decomposition having set in, Mr. Mann was only able to 

 save the wings and sternum. It then weighed from 8 to 8J lbs., the wing 

 measurement being 59 inches. (6.) On Feb. 4th, as I am informed by 

 the Rev. A. C. Smith, of Old Park, Devizes, a Bustard was shot near 

 Chippenham, Wilts, by a Mr. Wood, and was sent by him for preservation 

 to Foot the birdstuffer, at Bath. It measured 5 feet from tip to tip of 

 wing, and weighed 9 lbs. (7.) The latest Bastard of which I have 

 received any information was killed in Mildenhall Fen, Suffolk, on the 5th 

 February last. The fenman who shot it had no idea what it was, and dis- 

 posed of it to Mr. Howlett, the birdstuffer of Newmarket, who, in a letter 

 to 'The Standard 'of Feb. 7th, announced the occurrence, and stated that 

 the bird was a female, weighing about 18 lbs. On the 9th Feb., the Rev. 

 Julian G. Tuck, of Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmund's, having just seen 

 it, wrote to inform me of the fact, confirming the statement that it 

 was a hen bird, although from the unusual weight (nearly twice that of 

 any of the other female Bustards recently obtained) I had surmised that it 

 was perhaps a young male without the well-developed vibrissa which 

 characterise the adult cock bird, and might consequently have been mistaken 

 for a female. Mr. Howlett subsequently informed me, in reply to my 

 enquiry, that the weight was 13 lbs., and had been misprinted 18 lbs. We 

 thus have notice of seven Bustards procured between Dec. 9th and Feb. 5th, 

 and it is remarkable that every one of them has proved to be of the female 

 sex. Is this to be attributed to the greater wariness of the male birds which 

 (if any have visited us) have contrived to keep out of harm's way ? or are we 

 to iufer that the sexes separate in winter (as is the case with some other 

 species), and that a small herd of hen Bustards has come over here, become 

 scattered, and by this time probably annihilated ? The last immigration of 

 Great Bustards took place in the winter of 1879-80, and the occurrence of 

 eight or nine of these fine birds, of which only one was a male, will be found 

 to have been recorded in the latter year in the pages of this journal. 

 But although no specimens have been procured since that date, one is 

 reported to have been seen in Dorsetshire in May, 1888. In the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Dorset Nat. Hist, and Antiquarian Field Club,' vol. xi. 

 (1890), it is stated (p. xviii) that " a keeper in the employ of Sir Richard 

 Glyn first saw the bird on May 17th, 1888 ; it could run (he said) at a 

 fast rate, but did not seem to fly with ease. The last time he saw it was 

 on Compton Down ; it then flew on to Melbury Down, beyond Whitworth's 

 Bushes. It did not fly high, nor more than a mile from where it rose. 

 The observer never approached nearer than 150 yards." The President 

 (Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell) added that this description coincided with 

 Chafin's account of the flight of Bustards which he witnessed on the Dow r ns 

 near Woodgates Hill, near Salisbury, 100 years ago. The reference is 

 obviously to Chafin's « History of Cranbourne Chase " (1818, pp. 90, 91). 



