183 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



pair of Bustards having 1 been once more seen on the plain in 1877, a 

 declaration to that effect having appeared in the Field, and been copied 

 from thence into our local journal. But proof was wanting, I believe, 

 to substantiate the assertion, although of course there is no reason 

 why the report may not have been true. But as few lovers of birds, 

 perhaps, ever cross our plain without thinking of the Bustard, 

 and doubtless also longing to see them once more in their old haunts, 

 it is quite possible that the wish may at times become father to the 

 thought, and birds of lesser celebrity, as seen through the distorted 

 mirage of fond imagination, assume the more portly carriage and 

 proportions of this stately bird. 



Since that date, however, there have been seven or eight undoubted 

 occurrences of the Great Bustard within the range of our own islands, 

 a list of which has been kindly forwarded to me by Mr. W. Hart. 

 On December 5th, 1879, one at Woodham Ferres, Essex; December 

 8th, two specimens at St. Clement, J ersey ; December — in the 

 same month, one in Bomney Marsh, Kent ; 1880, one at Great 

 Chard, near Ashford ; January 10th, one on Cranborne Downs, 

 Dorset; January — ■ in the same month one from Wye; February 

 6th, one at West Wickham, Cambridgeshire. 



This finishes the notices I have been able to gather concerning 

 this, the grandest of all our British game birds. Would that there 

 was once more a chance of their staying and breeding with us. Of 

 this, however, there would seem to be but little hope, as the increase 

 of population and of agriculture leave them now but few spots where 

 such a thing would be practicable ; while their size renders their 

 escaping notice next to an impossibility. There are now two pairs 

 of these grand birds in our Salisbury and South Wilts Museum, 

 one pair coming from Yorkshire, killed in 1825, and the pair from 

 our own plain, procured as above-stated, in 1871. 



Otis Tetrax. "The Little Bustard/'' This is quite a rare bird 

 amongst us, never having been known to breed with us as the last 

 species, and only appearing as a straggler late in the autumn or 

 during the winter months — a male in summer plumage never having 

 been killed, as I believe, in our islands. On coming to talk of local 

 occurrences of this bird in our neighbourhood, I have but little to 



