AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. oo5 



131. GREAT BUSTARD, 



Otis tarda. 



The only record of the occurrence of this fine species 

 in oiu: county tliat I have hitherto been able to 

 discover is at p. 425 of Morton's ' Natural History 

 of Northamptonshire,' in the following words : — 

 " The Bustard, Otis seu Tarda avis, another bird of 

 the poultry kind, is so uncommon with us that T 

 never heard of more than two of them here, one of 

 which was shot by Captain Saunders in Moulton 

 Field." The work just quoted was published in 

 1712, at which time the Great Bustard w^as by no 

 means uncommon and well known in various districts 

 of England, but from the above extract j^t would 

 appear that our county did not suit the habits of 

 this bird of the open plains and downs. Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, the wolds of York- 

 shire and Lincoln, and the downs of Hampshire, 

 Wilts, and Sussex appear to have been the favourite 

 haunts of this species in England, and in the 16th 

 century it is recorded as not very common, but 

 occasionally breeding in the south of Scotland. For 

 full details and particulars of the former haunts and 

 habits of the Great Bustard in our country, I must 

 refer my readers to the 4th edition of Yarrell, vol. iii., 

 and to Mr. Stevenson's superexcellent ' Birds of 

 Norfolk.' This species is now, alas ! only an occa- 

 sional and by no means a common straggler to Great 

 Britain, and so far as I know, with one most praise- 

 worthy exception, the few that have appeared of late 

 years have been remorselessly pursued and, in most 

 instances, " done to death." In the volume of 



