Dec. 25 
1900 . 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1033 
BUSTARDS. 
The attention of ornithologists, sportsmen, 
and epicures was attracted by a short article 
which appeared in the columns of a contempo¬ 
rary newspaper recently under the title “Sub¬ 
stitutes for Chickens,” and which stated that a 
famous London chef was about to experiment 
with a brace of the lesser bustards (Otis tetrax) 
recently imported from the steppes bordering 
the Caspian sea. 
Having obtained a pair (male and female) of 
these very desirable feathered aliens, we put 
to the test the gastronomic qualities of one of 
the birds, after it had been larded and -very 
carefully roasted before a bright, clear fire, not 
by a celebrated chef but by one of the old 
school of women cooks, who is bad to beat at 
roasting game, and the laconic verdict passed 
upon the bird by an old sportsman-gourmet 
who shared in the feast was, “A thundering 
good bird, and not unlike black-game; but it 
requires hanging.” (It was almost as fresh as 
upon the day it was shot.) 
Having tasted the ghaum paanw, and several 
species of koorhaan, which represent the great 
and lesser bustards of South Africa respectively, 
we fancied the flavor of the European species 
not altogether unfamiliar, and we agreed with 
our epicurean guest in that the lesser bustard 
hailing from the vast plains of Southern Russia 
is an excellent table-bird, notwithstanding the 
fact that it arrives in this country in a frozen 
state. 
At the same time we are bound to confess 
that we fail to see how the lesser bustard is to 
take.the place of chicken on our British tables 
or, as stated in the article mentioned above, 
that its flesh resembles in flavor that of the 
pheasant. 
In the first place, with the exception of the 
thighs, which are almost as white as those of a 
young fowl, the flesh of the bird is as dark in 
color as the “brown meat” of the blackcock or 
capercailzie, while the pheasant is essentially a 
white-fleshed bird. In our' humble opinion the 
little bustard—although bearing just about as 
much relationship to the blackcock as a Hot¬ 
tentot does to a full-blooded Scotsman—re¬ 
sembles blackgame more than any other British 
game bird in flavor. True, the delicious under¬ 
layer of white meat which is found on the 
breast of both the blackcock and his big 
cousin, the capercailzie, is missing in the 
bustard; but if anything, the last-named is the 
juiciest bird of the three, a quality which more 
than compensates for the heath-fowl’s thin sub¬ 
stratum of white meat. 
It seems passing strange, nay, sad, that the 
: great and the little bustard are to _ all intents 
and purposes quite as extinct in Britain as the 
great auk. Nor has any serious attempt ever 
I been made to reintroduce either species to their 
old habits on the open plains, moors, and fen- 
lands of England, and the southeastern portion 
of Scotland. The draining of the fens, the En¬ 
closure of open lands, and extended cultivation, 
were in a great measure answerable for the 
exodus of the bustards, and the inveterate perse¬ 
cution of their arch-enemy, man, did the rest. 
Less, than two centuries ago both the great 
and the little bustard were fairly common in 
this country, and the fens probably harbored 
the last of them. Away back in the “seventies” 
a male great bustard paid a fleeting visit to the 
Norfolk fen-lands, and the late Lord Lilford 
turned down a couple of tame female birds of 
the same species, in the hope that they might 
coax the rara avis into remaining to breed. 
But, alas! he would have nothing to say to 
“the fair tempters,” and after remaining in the 
neighborhood a few days, he took wing across 
the North Sea, and was seen no more. We well 
remember seeing an illustration in one of the 
sporting publications of that period, which de¬ 
picted the passage of the interesting feathered 
wanderer across the sea, “Farewell!” being the 
very appropriate title of the picture. 
From time to time one reads of a misguided 
lesser bustard falling a prey to the gun of the 
pot-hunter on British soil, and while turning 
over the pages of the diary of an old naturalist- 
sportsman a few days ago, we came across an 
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