401 
visit & I think I could show you some.* * * § I am certain in winter, 
if not in summer; & I am now confident in asserting that the 
males come & visit the females, as they are never seen together 
at this season of the year. I can assure you I am quite delighted 
in being able to send a male & female of the Thick-kneed Bustard 
or Stone Curlew, which I suppose they are, as I shot them 
together. A good specimen of tho Little Bustard was shot in 
Norfolk this last winter, but I was not fortunate enough to obtain 
it : I used to have capital sport in hawking tho Stone-Curlew, I 
think far superior to Heron hawking which we carry on in good 
form. The Germans arrived last week with twenty! falcons & I 
expect to see capital sport. I have been endeavoring to obtain 
tho Icelander, to hawk Bustards & Wild Geese, which I think 
would be magnificent diversion ; but I fear, unless direct from the 
King of Denmark, they are not to be procured. I have been up 
to & fond of all sorts of sporting all my life, and altho’ a minorj 
can show capital diversion with my Stag Hounds, having no foxes : 
game being such a treasure, that wo are contented with humble 
Buck Hounds & posting^ Harriers. I shall be most anxious to 
hear the Birds, I now take tho liberty of sending you, will reach 
you safo. Any other kinds that I can procure for you I beg you 
will command & believe me 
Dear Sir 
Yours most faithfully & obliged 
Kobert Hamond. 
P. J. Selby Esq re 
* This visit was soon after paid, for in 1S25 Selby published his plates 
((>4 and 64*) from the specimens in Ilamond’s collection, which, at the death 
of his sister, Miss Hamond, of Swaffham, came into the possession of the late 
Mr. Robert Elwes, of Congham, and is still preserved at Congham House. 
t This word is not clear in the MS. It might be “seventy.” 
J That is a younger brother in schoolboy-phrase. 
§ Posting is now so much a thing of the past that readers may forget that 
in old days the slowness of post-horses was proverbial. 
