﻿?$« BUSTARD, 



and then met with, in troops of fifty or more-: frequent the open 

 countries of the foutb and eaft parts, from Dorfetjhire as far as the 

 Wolds in Torkjloire ; and on Salijbury plain, in Wiltjhire, are often 

 feen. Suppofed to be extinct in Scotland *. Are flow in taking 

 wing, yet run fo fa ft that nothing but Greyhounds can overtake 

 them. It is faid that thefe fwift courfers have run them down 

 before they could rife from the ground. In England are in 

 greateft numbers in autumn ; but in France are likewife feen in 

 fpring. Are common alfo in fame parts of Germany f ; hence 

 they fhould feem to migrate from one part to another. It is 

 common in all the fouth plains of Rujfta and dejarts of Tartary j 

 and is folitary, except at the times of migration, when it unites 

 into fmall flocks J. 



This bird makes no neft, but lays the eggs on the ground, 

 fcratching an hole therein, in fome dry corn-field: they are 

 two in number, as big as thofe of a Gooje ; of a pale olive brown, 

 marked with fpots of a deeper colour. The female abandons the 

 neft if the eggs be touched in her abfence. The food is grani- 

 vorous and herbaceous., but the bird alio feeds much on worms 

 which come out of the ground before fun-fet in fummer ||. 



* Br. ZooL—Flor. Scot, 



f Buflards are fo common in Hungary, that fometimes they are feen four or 

 iive hundred in a flight. — Keyjler , t Trav, vol. iv. p. 176. — Kramer. 

 ' % Dec. Ruff. || Br. Zoe/. 



Otis 



