had already disappeared from Hampshire; and' as regards
Sussex, of which Gilbert White, writing to Daines Barrington
on the 8th of October, i 770, from Ringmer, near Lewes,
says There are -Bustards on the wide" •‘©owns- above
Brighthelmstone,” the native race must shortly afterwards
have become extinct. Mr. Knox; in his ‘ Systematic Catalogue
of the Birds of Sussex/ published in 1855, says, p. 222,
“ I have' met with some very old people who, in their younger
days, have seen flocks of-this noble bird on the Downs.”
From the downs of Berkshire, Hertfordshire, and- - Cambridgeshire,
the Great Bustard passed away unrecorded, a
male killed near Ickleton being, perhaps, the last qf- the
indigenous birds in the'latter county^ Nor is ^ known
when it vanished' from the Wolds of Lincolnshire. In
Boswell’s ‘ Life of Johnson/ there is a'letter'from;the great
lexicographer1 to his friend Bennet Langton, of - Langton,
near Wragby/rfi that" county^dated 9thA January/ 1 '17-58’, in
which he says I have left off house-tneping, and therefore
made presents of the game you were pleased "token'd*ine.
The Pheasant I gave1 to Mr; Jtichardson, tK^ Bustard' to ’Dr.
Lawrence v ; and down tcF5 about’*T825 itWppears" icls n&ye
bred bn'the estate'of Sir ©hairles‘Anderson ait'Hawold.
Across the Humber, it would appear, from the Invbsfiga-
tfoni of Mr. W. E.'/Ciafke/ wEu has carefully- collected
and sifted- the?’/Ovfdfen*ce, that the Bustard continued |o
exist on the'Eastern Wolds so 'Ixpg- as * they remained as
undulating barren 'Sheep-walks. Th'e southern portion was
the first to be'dbserted, and the- 'e^ensibh of/t?lla'ge, the
introduction of early and artificial crops, and the spread 'of
enclosures^1 inevitably led toJfhe/ d c^ |p e /b fi^ e ''i'B'ustards in
their remotest refuge aoout Flixton, Hunmanby, and Reigh-
ton. It is believed that’ tihe^eaatihce^^vfhb^ ihdfg&nou'k
Great Bustard in Yorkshire ceased in l'882 of T8W@, when
the l^ 'ib e h bird was trapped on'“Sir W. Strickland’s^state
at Boynton, near Bridlington.*
Suffolk'and Norfolk,' which,1 Itrahg^lfd^saiy, had hardly
been mentioned ' by authors -'-down ftpitHe -present .iffitury,
* ‘Handbk. Yorkshire -65-6.8.
-now-, remained the last rMo counties where the indigenous
Bustard maintained a footing. -In the' former the headquarters
« of one “ drove ” were on the jbpbh country lying
between Icklingham Heath, ©random , and Thetford, and
from the latter a certain • amount of; communication .appears
to "have been kept'.up with the Norfolk"'“ drove” wh,ich
frequented the neighbourhood« of Swaffharm In the Suffolk
district, North . Stow Heath , and Icklingham Heath seem
to have Keen the ichief resorts-;' and up; tjp.^18.12 utfe
“ drove ’,’-.appears to have consisted vnD some,, thirty ior forty
individuals.- About this.period commenced the • practice -of
«planting long'beltstof:trees with the .object.of sheltering-the
arable land from'the pernicious effect qf .the wind 'acting
upon-a light sandy .soil«; and the; result of this agricultural
improvement was soon manifested • by the rapid diminutliu
in the numbers of .the -Bustards. • Although protected -by
the'Duke of-Grafton, at Huston, Mr.-Newton atiElyedfen, and
Messrs. G.wjilt-at Icklingham, other proprietors permitted faiid
even lemeburaged their | destruction; and a ikeepenwas; even
allowed W* .rig-up .a masked battery .of duck-guns cpncfen:
trated' upon icsplb strewn with : turnips, i a co rd h tlf a mile
long being attached to the : triggers- of the. guns, and the
shepherds :and. farm-labourers being .duly instructed in- thf
arhofWorking:this infernal machine. In 1832 a; nes,b, | | g I
lievedto be the’.last in Suffolk, .was found-on the borders -.of
Thetford Warren, and recorded by The late- Mr, J. -D./Ho^
(Mag.rNat. Hist. 1833, <p. 15^} Who'stafed^/that the old'bird
carried off her young in safety, and that a male1 and two
females were subsequently;seeh together „on the ■same rheath.
ifhilWrest was situated/in.a field of rye/ as were, nearly- all
the nests pointed out by eye1 witnesses./ i
In.Norfolk the late Mr. j . ©.-Salmon'has recorded (Magi
Nit. Hist. 1884,ip..458) that'“ .in the spring1 of 1832, three
females .resorted to:/Great’ Massingham Heath, in Norfolk;
for incubation. Thfeirbeggs .consisted/-qf: twO p a irs. and - a
single .one1. These were taken away-, under the ;impr,essiofi
that:as‘-there; was no male, bird,'.they were good' for nothing*;
but the male is said to live apart .after the femaleas impreg-
W fW '111 •- , •>/