346 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



indeed, form a perfect paradise for a vast number of 

 species of the fowls of the air, the number and 

 variety of raptorial birds, from the huge Griffon and 

 Black Vultures down to the little Merlin and 

 Sparrow-Hawk, is perfectly astonishing, and in the 

 lower portion of the valley of the Guadalquivir it is 

 by no means an uncommon occurrence to see 

 thousands of Flamingoes fringing the horizon in long 

 lines, or at a great distance giving the impression of a 

 dense rose-coloured cloud as they rise and shift their 

 quarters. 



The Great Bustard is exceedingly wary and sharp- 

 sighted, and although there are many traditions of 

 their having been killed in this country by the aid of 

 trained stalking-horses, the Spaniards whom I ques- 

 tioned told me that to get a shot in that manner by 

 daylight was quite an exceptional occurrence, though 

 their horses are perhaps the most docile in Europe, 

 and by their aid great numbers of wildfowl of various 

 kinds, and Sand-Grouse, quite the most wary of 

 birds, are annually killed. It is remarkable that 

 although the Great Bustard often visits the plains of 

 Epirus and Albania, and is reported as breeding in 

 the Morea, I only saw one during nearly two years' 

 constant rides and shooting expeditions in those 

 provinces, when my headquarters were at Corfu ; but 

 in the winter of 1858 a party of foLU' from that island 

 w^ere more fortunate, and killed over fifty Bustards in 

 about a week by waiting for them at morning and 

 evening on their passage to and from their feeding- 

 ground near the Gulf of Arta and not very far from 

 Prevesa. 



The tales of Bustards being habitually coursed 

 with greyhounds are myths, and probably originated 

 from the fact of an occasional " chopping " of one by 



