MEMOIR or THE LATE JOHN SCALES. 
115 
sportsman and gunner, so that the male at all events, I believe, has become 
extinct. I observed a fine male in the British Mnseum the other day, but 
no female. Of course I know nothing of the history of it.* . . . AVhen 
the late l)r. Leach was ... at the Museum I was intimate with him, 
say thirty years ago, and I recollect there was a very miserable male 
specimen, which I have no doubt was a British one. I cannot think this is 
the same. I saw a miserable male specimen in the University Museum as I 
passed through Dublin about two years ago ; but did not observe it, on look- 
ing hastily through the Museum, as I*pas.sed through the other day. I have 
understood that a male bird was killed in the Bog of Allen some years ago ; 
but whether that in the Dublin Museum is it or not I do not know. There 
is no female in the Dublin Museum, so that I think mine is the only female 
specimen in Ireland. I observed two Bustard’s eggs in the British Museum ; 
but no figures or marks upon them. A friend of mine, Mr. D’Urban Blyth 
of Massingham, had a Bustard’s egg about ten or fifteen years ago,t found 
in a field of rye on his farm, as I was informed. This is all the information 
I can give you about the Bustards’ eggs. 
With regard to the Bustard being polygamous, I am inclined to think 
there is very little doubt of it. In fact that is the opinion I had formed. In 
the various flocks, both largo and small, I have never observed more than two 
or three males, and I perfectly well recollect that when Jlr. Ilamond shot 
his fine male, there were only two males out of fifteen or seventeen birds. 
I have seen as many as twenty-one, but never more than two or three males. 
I have never seen the males with any females about the time of incubation, 
and my opinion is that, during that time, the male bird was the sentinel to, 
probably, two or three females, acting as a decoy to draw off the attention of 
the intruder. 
I think the question may be asked, are they, the females in particular, 
migratory ? It is a common circumstance for cottagers’ and oven farmers’ 
wives to send a female Turkey to the male at a distance, and [she] having 
been impregnated is brought back and found to be sufficient for the clutch of 
eggs. Now how fir may this apply to the Bustards, supposing them to be 
plentiful in the great plains of Prance, and, when the females are impregnated, 
[to] retire from the males and some to migrate to England. Otherwise, 
how can we account for a solitary female continuing to be seen occasionally, 
and I have seen an account, once or twice, of an egg having been found in 
an open wheat, rye, or oat field. ... I have merel}’ thrown out these 
observations for your consideration. ... I recollect perfectly well when 
a young boy, about ten years old, going with my father to ilr. Donovan’s, 
• This specimen came from Montagu’s collection and is said to have been 
obtained in AViltshire. — A.N. 
t Through the kind intervention of Mr. T. Southwell what I believe to be 
this specimen passed in 1857 into the collection of my brother and myself. — 
A.N. 
I 
o 
