362 "Recent Occurrence of the Great Bustard in Wilts." 



consisted of Ranunculus bulbosus ) Dandelion, and Hypocharisradicata. 

 The one blade of grass, by its redness below and white veins, may 

 be Festuca, but this is pure guess-work/' Mr. Preston, after ex- 

 amining his portion forwarded it to Kew, whence he received the 

 following authoritative decision : " It principally consists of leaves 

 and young buds of Ranunculus repens : there is one leaf of Gochlearia 

 officinalis, part of a leaf of an unknown plant, and the thorax of a 

 beetle." On which Mr. Preston remarks : " The leaf of Cochlearia 

 is very interesting : it is a seaside plant, and hence proves that the 

 poor bird must have been shot the very moment it reached Chippen- 

 ham." Mr. Preston also discovered among what he conjectured to 

 be the leaves of common grasses the leaf of a plantain. [I should 

 add, to account for any seeming difference of opinion on the part of 

 the above eminent authorities, that the portion of leaves submitted 

 to each of them was so excessively small, that in all probability 

 the sample examined by one did not consist of precisely the same 

 materials as seen by another.] 



So much and no more could I gather in regard to this Great 

 Bustard, which when shot was supposed to be a Wild Goose. But 

 the thought will naturally rise up in the minds of most people, how 

 sad that every one of these Great Bustards — and, I may add, every 

 other rare bird — should be immediately killed, as soon as it makes 

 its appearance in England ! Alas ! that such should be the case, 

 but I fear it is inevitable, so long as that most pernicious and most 

 foolish practice exists among some collectors, to value at ten, twenty, 

 or even fifty-fold a British-hilled specimen,in comparison with exactly 

 the very same species, and an equally good, probably better, skin 

 imported from the locality abroad where the bird in question is 

 abundant. There is nothing to be said in favour of this extraordi- 

 nary eagerness to possess specimens which have met their deaths in 

 this country, but it is obvious that such fictitious value imparted to 

 such unfortunate stragglers as, on a fatal day for themselves, visit 

 our inhospitable shores, is quite certain to ensure their destruction : 

 and until such collectors come to a better mind in the matter, we 

 fear that the death of all strange visitors to the shores of " perfide 

 Albion " is inevitable. 



