BUSTARD. 371 



their larvae, toads, mice, &c. the cry is singular, an hoarse kind of 

 whistle, three or four times repeated, heard more than a mile, and 

 chiefly in the evening, more like the creaking of the handle of a 

 well, grindstone, or other axle wanting grease. Buflfon compares 

 this note to the words Turrlui, turrlui ; and says, the bird is common 

 in France. It appears first towards the end of April, but is some- 

 times heard much earlier,* and will now and then stay till Novem- 

 ber ;f but more frequently departs in October. Mr. Boys has seen 

 them on high chalk downs in winter, and once shot a bird at Sand- 

 wich, in January 1781 ; though their remaining here throughout 

 the year is by no means common. Independent of France, it also 

 inhabits Italy and Spain, and in the Province of Andalusia is found 

 in all moist grounds from September to March, which is the very 

 season of its general disappearance in England, in the southern 

 counties of which last it mostly abounds, and vast flocks are some- 

 times seen to congregrate in Sussex, before their departure ; it is now 

 and then seen at Gibraltar, on the rocks near Europa Point on the 

 opposite shore, in the spring, and therefore conjectured to have 

 come from Barbary ; and, if the Kervanf of Hasselquist, is found 

 in Arabia, where the Turks and Egyptians keep it alive in cages, 

 being fond of the noise it makes, to them agreeable. A specimen 

 brought from the Cape of Good Hope was larger, twenty inches in 

 length. I have also seen it represented in various drawings from 

 India, and the name known by there is Curwaruk, said to be of the 

 usual size, as was the skin of one brought from Barbary,§ in the 

 year 1784.|| 



* February 27. April 24. — Nat. Cal. p. 15. f September 1. November 7. 



Id. p. 50. & 76. 



J Hasselquist says, it differs from the Corvus Genus, only in not having seta? at the 

 base of the nostrils. — See Trav. p. 93. 



§ I have seen it figured in India drawings of a larger size than common, and named 

 Kervan. 



|| Also said to be a native of Owhyhee. — See Ellis's Narr. ii. 143. 



B B B 2 



