In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 



183 



communicate. The following notice, however, was kindly sent to 

 me from the local paper, and if it could have been duly substantiated 

 might have enabled us to claim it as a county visitor. The paragraph 

 referred to was the following, which I have still by me : — "Bustards 

 on Salisbury Plain/'' " Sir — riding on the old drift-way which leads 

 from Salisbury to Everleigh, when near the latter place, at the back 

 of Sidbuiy Hill, on the open down, I came suddenly on a pair of 

 Bustards. I know the birds perfectly, having seen them on the 

 plains near Casa Viechen, half way between Cadiz and Gibraltar, in 

 the South of Spain. There are two sorts, the Greater and Lesser. 

 It was a pair of the Lesser Bustards I saw this day. Meeting an 

 old man shortly after, I enquired if he had ever seen such a thing. 

 His answer was, ' I am seventy-two, and never have, but I have 

 heard my father speak of them as having been quite common in his 

 youth/ I hope no sportsman or naturalist will think it necessary 

 to shoot them, as they may breed. Yours, &c, Viator. April 4th^ 

 1867/' I am much afraid, however, this account carries in itself 

 its own condemnation. First of all I cannot hear of any instance of 

 this bird occurring so late as April 4th in our islands, just before 

 the breeding time : almost all the specimens being procured between 

 the end of October and beginning of February. Though I have 

 noticed one mentioned as having been shot as late as March 4th. 

 But there is certainly a jumble made in " Viator's " account between 

 the Greater and Lesser varieties — or, if not in his own mind, most 

 certainly in the old man's, whom he is represented as interrogating. 

 This old man of seventy-two declares that he had heard his father 

 say that they "were common in his youth/' Undoubtedly the 

 Great Bustard was ; but the Little Bustard as certainly was not ; 

 and the old man's assertion clearly referred to Otis Tarda, and not to 

 Otis Telrax. " Viator 33 certainly, from his pronounced experience, 

 ought not to have been mistaken, but we cannot help remembering 

 the presence on the plain of the Stone Curlew, or Norfolk Plover, 

 a fine bird in itself, and something of the same tint in general 

 plumage as the Little Bustard, and which by an uninitiated eye, or ex- 

 citable imagination, might be mistaken occasionally for the rarer bird. 

 However the paragraph is too interesting to be omitted,, such as it is. 



