IIG 
MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN SCALES. 
at that time a great naturalist (who published his work on Insects and others 
on Natural History) who had three Bustards in one case, for which he asked 
fifty guineas ! What became of them subsequently I know not, having then 
gone to boarding-school. . . . 
In reference to the gular pouch said to be attached to the throat of the 
male bird, I can distinctly state that in my own specimen I dissected out the 
pouch ; but from [its] having lain dead in the atmosphere upon the w'arren for 
two or three days, or perhaps longer, jis I stated before, in the hottest part of 
summer, the throat in a greater or less degree had become tainted, so much 
so, that some few of the auditory feathers or auriculars sloughed off; other- 
wise I had intended to have expanded it and preserved it. This circumstance 
I perfectly recollect, but as regards Mr. Hamond’s male bird I can say 
nothing as I recollect he had skinned it before I arrived at High House; but 
I assisted him to set up the bird. The pouch was not thought of, or, if it 
was, I do not recollect his having mentioned it. The body was cooked, and 
proved excellent eating, as did also my own. Those were the only two males 
I ever skinned.* ... I feel a deep and lively interest in the subject you 
have taken up, [so] that it affords me the greatest pleasure to contribute the 
best information in my power to elucidate any of the points you are so 
anxious to have cleared up. Therefore the anxiety and interest I feel has 
caused me to carry them out to an unpardonable length, and I can only throw 
myself upon your kind indulgence to excuse it. You must cull out the 
few observations which may be useful, and throw the trash away. . . . 
I think it probable that the males until they arrive at a certain age do not 
acquire the auricular feathers, but retain the female plumage, and yet may 
perform the functions of their elder parents. . . . Bustards, like Turkeys, 
are voracious feeders on green food such [as] turnip-tops, rye, oats, wheat, 
etc. in a green state, and also worms, which they would procure on downs and 
plains. . . . 
Feb. 26. 1856. 
. . . of the female [Bustard] the one I had, [now] in the Norwich 
Museum, I think weighed 13 lbs., the one I have weighed 16. I might have 
imagined the one I have to be a young male, not having examined it 
anatomically, taking it for granted it was a female from its inferior size; 
but there is one distinguishing character between the male and female which 
cannot he mistaken, viz., that [on] the forepart of the neck is a naked bluish 
black akin extending towards the ear coverts and covering the gular pouch. 
* Literally taken this is a contradiction of the statement four lines above ; 
but the writer’s meaning is obvious. — A.N. 
