Birds. 5603 



the open, stony ground, and others from bushes. I never chanced to 

 get any very good shooting at the quail, owing to not having a dog, 

 and the difficulty of procuring shot. An officer who had a dog, I be- 

 lieve bagged twenty-two couple, in about four hours, near Balaclava. 

 The old vineyards were favourite resorts of these birds. They con- 

 tinued numerous until the end of September. The first which I heard 

 of in the spring was on the 25th of April; I shot one, which I pre- 

 served, in the beginning of May, and I observed them in pairs at the 

 end of the month, on the plains to the north of Sebastopol ; they were 

 not observed in numbers as in autumn. 



I now come to the bustards, birds which British naturalists so 

 seldom see in the wild state. I expect that both the great bustard 

 (Otis tarda) and the little bustard (Otis tefrax), breed on the steppes 

 of the Crimea, for I heard of the former being seen as late as the 

 beginning of May, and I myself saw the latter at the end of that 

 month ; in the one day, however, 1 only saw one pair, all the others 

 being single birds. All who were in the camp near Sebastopol during 

 the cold weather, towards the end of the year 1855, will remember the 

 enormous flight of bustards which passed over : they usually flew high 

 up in the air, and, seen from the ground, they appeared quite white. 

 Many were killed by Minie bullets fired up at them, and others when 

 they alighted on the hills about Balaclava ; they were observed first on 

 the 19th of December, and continued flying over in great numbers for 

 three days. The country being covered with snow, together with the 

 presence of the army, will account for so few alighting in the Cherso- 

 nese, which Seymour describes as a great resort for them during winter, 

 when the plains to the north are covered with snow, and that they used 

 to be a cheap and favourite article of food in Sebastopol. On arriving 

 at Balaclava, after a bad passage from the Bosphorus, on the 21st of 

 December, I observed these birds, which appeared to be all, or nearly 

 all, flying over high in great numbers from the north, but there had 

 been many more the day previous. Whether they crossed the Euxine 

 to Asia Minor I cannot say, but the greater part steered away towards 

 the south coast beyond Cape Aia. I saw a couple that day, which 

 weighed about 16^ lbs. each, and I heard of one which came into the 

 possession of the renowned Mrs. Seacole, which was said to weigh 

 22 lbs., and another I was told of only came up to 13j lbs. : they were 

 thought by many at first to be turkeys. A break up in the weather 

 occurred shortly after this ; and afterwards a few were occasionally 

 observed of the large species. The little bustard was not nearly so 

 plentiful ; they were occasionally shot during winter and spring until 



