THE GREAT BUSTARD 
1 1 
same day. The Rev. \V. Chaffin, in the second edition of his 
“ Anecdotes of Cranbourn Chace,” published in i8i8, thus refers 
to his meeting with a flock of bustards in 1751 : “ 1 was shooting 
dotterels near Winterslow Hut, when the report of my gun 
disturbed twenty-five bustards, which flew away quietly over the 
hill called Southern Hill. I followed them on horseback and came 
upon them nearly within shot. As they rose, the noise of their 
wings frightened my horse, which I was leading; he started back, 
threw me down, and ran away. As soon as I got upon my knees, 
I fired at the birds, but they had got out of range. I saw one 
separate itself from the rest, and alight on the side of the opposite 
hill and spread out its wings as if wounded, but before I could 
come within shot it took flight and followed the line of its com- 
panions.” He adds : “ 1 believe such a number of bustards will 
never again be seen in England together.” On January 23, 
1871, three bustards appeared near Maddington, a village on 
Salisbury Plain, and one of them was killed by a bird-keeping 
boy with a marble which he happened to have in his pocket 
at the time, and with which he charged his gun {Zoologist, 1871, 
p. 2479). A few days later, on January 26, the two survivors 
were seen near the village of Berwick St. James, and one, a 
male, was shot with a bullet {Zoologist, 1871, p. 2510). It is 
preserved in the Salisbury Museum. Nearly ten years later, on 
January i, 1880, a hen bustard, weighing nine pounds, was 
shot by Mr. W. Hibberd in a turnip-field at Handley, near 
Woodyates Inn, and was sent for preservation to Mr. Hart, 
of Christchurch {Zoologist, 1880, p. no). This is the Dorset 
specimen mentioned in the fourth edition of “ Yarrell’s British 
Birds," vol. iii., p. 208. 
The mere fact that so much industry is needed to hunt up its 
recorded appearances shows how rare it must have been for 
generations past. And as no fossil remains of it occur, nor is 
it found in kitchen-middens in this country, it seems probable 
that it was introduced by the Romans, who brought the pheasant 
and the cherry, and who knows what else, to this country ? Rifles 
have been deadly foes to it, though before the rifle was used 
with much effect snares were in common use, and its capture 
was an achievement much gloated over. On the other hand, in 
“ Martin’s New Dictionary of Natural History,” in 1785, this 
passage occurs ; “ These birds are frequently seen in flocks of 
more than fifty on the extensive Downs of Salisbury Plain, 
on Newmarket and Royston Heaths in Cambridgeshire, in the 
Dorset uplands, and even as far north as March or Lothian 
in Scotland.” Mr. Stevenson read a paper at the Norwich 
meeting of the British Association, on the “ Former Abundance 
of the Bustard in England, and the Cause of its Extirpation.” 
Be this as it may, it would seem that the year 1838 witnessed 
the death of the last English survivor of this splendid race of 
birds. 
The kind of way in which this happened is illustrated by the 
