GREAT BUSTARD. — Otis tarda . 
The Great Bustard was once quite common in this country, but is now very 
seldom seen. 
This splendid bird, although in former days quite an usual tenant of plains and 
commons, and having been an ordinary object of chase on Newmarket Heath, is 
now so very rare, that an occasional specimen only makes its appearance at very 
rare intervals, and is then generally found — and shot — on Salisbury Plain. Its 
general colour is chestnut, barred with black, the head and neck are grey, and the 
under surrace white. 
