﻿BUSTARD. 



obfcure dulky marks : thefe it places on the bare ground, or at 

 lead in a fmall excavation of the earth, or iheltered by a ftone or 

 two, and fits thirty days. It feems to hatch late in the feafon, as 

 the young have been brought to me, unable to fly, the middle* 

 of Olfober; and indeed authors have obferved this. The young 

 will follow like chickens as foon as hatched, and for a long 

 time are of a grey colour, and downy like a young O ivl. 



The cry is Angular ; an hoarfe kind of whittle three or four 



times repeated, to be heard more than a mile off"; in my opinion 



much refembling the creaking of a well handle,' or that of a 



grindftone wanting greafe. This noife it makes in the evening 



and night only. Bttffon compares it to turrlui, turrlui ; and fays 



the bird is common in feveral of the provinces of France-, and, 



if the lame with the Kervan of Hajfelquijl, is found in Arabia. 



The Turks and Egyptians, he fays, keep it alive in cages for the 



fake of the noife, which to them is agreeable. He likewife 



adds, that it is ufeful in deftroying mice, too common in Palef- 



tine: with us it may perhaps do the fame, if noticed, but in 



thefe parts is fuppofed to live on. worms, caterpillars, toads, and 



iuch like. 



I have feen a fpecimen of this bird, brought from the Cape of 

 Good Hope f , perfectly the fame, but larger, being twenty inches 

 in length ■, it is likewife mentioned as a native of Owhyhee %. 



* The end. — Allin. Said to breed twice a year in the ijland 'of Malta. 



f Now at Sir Jo/eph Banks's. 

 J Ellis' 's N-arrat. ii. p. 1 43. 



D I R E C- 



