Aristotle, Athenseus, Belon, Oppian, Pliny,* and Plutarch;
but for the purposes of the present work it will suffice to
consider more recent authorities, especially those who treat
of the former existence of this magnificent bird in our own
islands. In the melancholy task of tracing the gradual
extirpation of the largest of the indigenous British species,
recourse has been had to the stores of infbrmation published
by Mr. W. E. Clarke (Handbk. Yorkshire Vertebrates), and
particularly by Mr. H. Stevenson (Birds of Norfolk, ii. pp.
1-42), and the latter in his turn has availed himself of the
accumulated experiences of Professor Newton and others,
who, from long residence in the Bustard-country,' were
familiar with the bird by tradition and observation.
With the comparatively peaceful times ushered in by the
accession of the Tudor sovereigns, the cultivation and enclosure
of waste lands made rapid strides incompatible with
the welfare of the Great Bustard, but down -to the time of
Henry VIII. it inhabited all .the undulating plains and wolds
from the British Channel to. the. Firth bf Forth. An early
reference to this bird appears in the Earl of- Northumberland’s
regulations, in 1512/-for his ^C^ktles/o-f Wresill and
Lekinfield in Yorkshire,’ wherein,occurs the observation:
“ Item, Bustardes for my Lordes own Meesaat Principal
Feestes ande non other tyme Except my Lordes, comaund-
ment be otherwyse.” =®m%'&t‘British author who gave any
account of the’bird wrote-of it at the .„northern limit of itB
range, for i t 'i s Hector Boethius,' who says, infp|526 :—
“ Besides these we have-moreover another foule in Mers [the
flat land between j^be Lammermuir Hills and the-- Tweed],
more strange and uncouth than all these afore mentioned,
called a Custard, fully so great as a Swanne, but|®|, colour
of feathers and taste of fleshe little differing from a Partriche,
howboit these byrdes aro not verie -common, neyther' to-dab
seene in all places; suche alsov-i^'fleitf'qualiti^/"that if
* Pliny; Hist. Nat. x. cap. 29, says, “ Quas Hispania aves tardas appellat,
Gracia otidas.7 The name Bistard, or Busta/rd, has generally been accepted as
a corruption of the words Avis tarda, indicative of theHnid’s^lown.ess i® taking
flight, but -to this derivation.some recent authorities object.
they perceive their ogges to have bene touched in theyr
absence by man’s hand (which lie commonly on the bare
earth), they forsake those nestes and lay in other places.” *
The next allusion comes from the latest stronghold of the
Bustard in this country, namely, from Norfolk; the often,
quoted Household Books of the L ’Estranges of Hunstanton
having the following entries, 1527 : 8 The xljst Weke,
Wèdynsday. It. viij malards, a bustard and j-hernsewe'
kylled wf- ye crosbowe ” ; and in 1580, “ Itm. in reward
the xxvth day of July to Baxter’s svnt dfrStannewgh for
bryngyng of ij yong busterds ijd.” ^ '
In 1584 the eggs of Bustards were specified in the Act for
the protection of Wild F.owle '(25th Henry VHÏ.j, the penalty
being the-same as in the case -o||the^ Crajijg, already mentioned
; and ten year^ later Dr. William Turner,, speaks of
the Bustard as a resident species. The following extracts
from Dugdale’s <$pg£nes as exhibiting the
prices of various kinds of game provided'tor a feast given, in
the Inner Temple Hall on the 16th of October, 15Jj5, the
third year -of .Philip, and Mary, are not without ornithological
interest r-^namely, Bustards, 10s. each ; Swans, 1 0 |.;
B^ies^Qg."; Pheasants^ïsl; Turkeys, 4 s.; Turkey chicks,
4s.; Capons,"2s. '63Ï; Pea chickens, 2 s.; Partridges, Is. 4d. ;
Plovers/6d, V Curlews, 1 s . | t Godwits, 2sVi6d.// Knots,.
Is.; Pigeons, Is. 63. a$ozen;t Larks,
cocks, 7 s. a cLozpn ^ t ,a d.qzen^ »,,r.;Vk*-p}-TI
The Dr. Thomas Muffet, previously/cited when treating .of
the C^rane,:. wfitihg in Wiltshire prior to/Ï 590, makes the
following quaint remarks
^M i& a rd s orlßustards (so' cajjed for their slow pace .and
heavy flying) ä ^ Ja s thé Septs tejm them, '(fyfêsta/rds, that is
to say jMml'GeeseJikd. upon flesh, Livers, and young Lambsf
• The* Description of^ jlkotlande/in ,HoHnshed’s Chronicles, 1st Ed. i. P*.
f ?TKis-remark evidently arose from'a confusion—not -uhcommon-^fc-tne
present-,day—between jthe names- Bjustw.d and. B ifza kd l During the visitation
o£‘B 70-71, Bustards were mentioned in.print, .in Devonshire and elsewhere, „as
‘Wild Turkeys’—/pardonable error; but the,.clirpax was reached at Barnstaple,