MR. E. J. H. ELDRED OX THE GREAT BUSTARD. 731 
and requirements and take advantage of any little knowledge 
gained. 
I have seen it stated that the Bustard has been domesticated 
but it cannot be regarded as completely so till it has bred in 
captivity, which it has been rarely known to do, the only 
instance on record that I am aware of is that mentioned in the 
Field ot 2 1st Sept., 1907, and which occurred in the Tyrol 
in the year i860. 
1 he chief difficulty to get over in my mind is this, they are 
essentially ground birds and would seem to have no fixed 
roosting lesoit, and judging from the restlessness of mine so 
often displayed at evening and sometimes when let out in the 
morning, I come to the conclusion that they would shift their 
gtound \ ery frequently and not return to any particular 
resting place even if accustomed to be fed on the spot, and 
one has only to observe their great wing expansion and 
consequent power of flight to infer to what a distance they 
would travel, they could of course be pinioned or have their 
flight feathers cut, but I am averse to this to begin with, as 
I consider so doing might and probably does dispirit them ; 
as they get older and possibly more reconciled and settled 
to their surroundings this might be tried, the first efforts will 
therefore I think have to be made by keeping them’entirely 
as Aviary Birds. 
With regard to the reintroduction in a wild state — it would 
seem useless to turn out even young birds, strangers in a 
strange land, without first enclosing them for a considerable 
time on the ground where it is intended to release them. The 
distance which now separates us from their present nearest 
haunts on the continent — North Germany — precludes the hope 
of any number of immigrants frequently turning up as^in the 
winter of 1S70-71, when more than a dozen appeared in various 
parts of England, but were as a matter of course destroyed. 
With the Great Bustards three specimens of the Lesser 
Bustard were most kindly sent us, these seemed to be doing 
well up to the end of February last, when two suddenly died, 
both proving hens, the survivor, which I think was also a hen, 
I sent to the Zoological Gardens where I hope it found a mate. 
