GREAT BUSTARD. MALE. 
Oris Tarda. 
Lin . Syst. i. p. 2 6 4. 
L’Outarde. 
Bris. Orn . v. p. 1 9. 
Buff. Ois. ii, p. l . 
Bustard. 
Will. Orn. p. 17 8. 
Br. Hool. i. No. 9 8. 
Great Bustard. 
Lath . iii. p. 7 95. 
The Great Bustard is allowed to be the largest of the land fowls in our 
island. The male weighing from twenty to twenty-seven pounds, and 
measuring from three feet and a half to four feet. 
The male differs from the female, not only in size and in the superior 
brightness of his plumage, but by the whiskers which rise on each side from 
the corner of the under mandible, and in his being furnished with a pouch 
situated in the fore part of the neck, the entrance of which is immediately 
under the tongue, and capable of containing seven pints of water, answer- 
ing the purpose of a reservoir, to supply the female while sitting, and the 
young birds until they are capable of providing for themselves. 
Although so large a bird, they are in their wild state exceedingly timo- 
rous, avoiding as much as possible all intercourse with mankind ; and 
notwithstanding their strength, are so remarkably pusillanimous as never 
to exert it even for their own preservation, always shrinking from attacks 
however contemptible the opponent, never attempting any resistance, but 
providing for their safety by flight. They are slow in taking wing, yet 
run so fast that the swiftest greyhound can only overtake them. 
They inhabit most of the open countries of the southern and eastern parts 
of the island, from Dorsetshire to theWolds inY orkshire, and are frequently 
met with on Salisbury Plain. With us they are in the greatest numbers 
in autumn, sometimes in troops of fifty or more : are also common in some 
parts of Germany, and in Hungary, four or five hundred have been seen in 
a flight. They feed on grain and herbs, and likewise on large eai tli-wor ms, 
which appear in great quantities on the downs, where they chiefly inhaoit. 
A most beautiful pair of these birds were presented to Robert Child, Esq. 
by the present Marquis of Bath. 
