NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 231 



permanently failed, there can be little doubt that from this centre 

 of introduction the county of Sussex was originally stocked. 



Under the head of Great Bustard (p. 199) Mr. Borrer gives 

 an interesting piece of information : — 



" The Bustard " (he says) " was often hunted with Greyhounds by my 

 grandfather, who died at an advanced age in 1844. He told me that he 

 had had many a good course with these birds. He used to go out early in 

 the morning after a foggy night, to look for them feeding in the wet turnips, 

 when they were frequently so thoroughly soaked as to be unable to fly. He 

 generally found them in little parties of from five to ten, and sometimes 

 took five or six in a morning; commonly young birds, though occasionally 

 he had known an old one to be caught ; but they avoided them as much 

 as possible, for, when overtaken by the dogs, they fought savagely, and had 

 more than once damaged the Greyhounds.* 



" They were most common on a part of the Downs between the Dyke 

 and a place known as Thunders Barrow, from certain ancient tumuli sup- 

 posed to be British. My father also, while riding on the Downs about a 

 mile from Patcham, fell in with nine of these birds feeding in a turnip- 

 field ; this was about the year 1810. I have heard them spoken of by some 

 of the old Southdown shepherds as having been often seen by them. Of 

 course the birds then bred there." 



The pages relating to the Bustard were probably printed off 

 before the news could have reached the author of the latest 

 occurrence of this species in Sussex, namely, on the 6th January 

 last, when one (a hen bird) was shot on Pett Level, near Win- 

 chelsea. (See ' The Zoologist' for March last, p. 104). 



We regret that want of space precludes our noticing many 

 other passages which we had marked for comment, more particu- 

 larly amongst the Waders and Wildfowl, to which we have paid 

 considerable attention in Sussex harbours and marshes. We may 

 possibly be enabled to return to the subject later, but for the 

 present we can do no more than direct attention to the extracts, 

 which are given in an Appendix, from the unpublished MSS. of 

 William Markwick, of Catsfield, near Battle (see Zool. 1890, 

 pp. 335 and 379), and to the half-dozen coloured plates, by J. G. 

 Keulemans, with which the volume is embellished. The species 



* The former practice of coursing Bustards with Greyhounds has been 

 noticed not only in England (' The Naturalists' Pocket-Book, or Complete 

 Cabinet of Nature,' London, 1799-1800), but also in Russia (Dresser, 

 ' Zoologist,' 1871, p. 2512). 



