THE RETURN OF THE GREAT BUSTARD.
" COUNTRY Life," referring to the importation from Spain of a small flock of great bustards, temporarily kept at the Zoo, mentions that one or more pairs of these birds are to be turned out on an old haunt of the species on the Yorkshire Wolds; adding that it is not so muoh matter for surprise that the restoration of this, the largest of our native birds, is about to be attempted now, but that it has not been tried earlier and on a larger scale. It would be unsafe to assume that because the capercailzie now flourishes in the Scotch woods the permanent restoration of the bustard to its ancient haunts on the Wiltshire Downs, the Wolds, and the Norfolk heaths and " brecks " is equally possible. But though some species refuse utterly to acquiesce in change either of habit or environment, and, like the black tern, the avocet, and the bartailed godwit, migrate to seek elsewhere what they no longer find in this country, there is good reason to believe that there is no such obstacle to the return of the bustard.
Any one willing to spend money and trouble on such an ex- periment would wish to know whether the bird is found flourish- ing elsewhere in conditions like those in which it would find itself in the England of to-day ; and secondly, whether the
pauses which led to its final disappearance here were permanent er accidental. Fortunately there is a very interesting and reliable body of evidence on both these points in the bustard's .history. Both the late Lord Lilford and Mr. Abel Chapman attentively studied the haunts and habits of the bustard in Spain; and the late Mr. Stevenson delayed for a long time the publication of his second volume of "The Birds of Norfolk" to write a complete, and incidentally most charm- ing, account of the facts connected with the "decline and rail" of the same birds in their last home in Norfolk. There was no authority, from Mr. Alfred Newton to the "shepherd's pages" of lcklingham Heath, from whom Mr. Stevenson did not gather facts first band as to the disappearance of our largest bird. And the inference from his account is, with one exception, not unfavourable to its restoration.
At present it is an exceedingly common bird in Southern Spain. Its numbers are probably reinforced by migrants from the higher and colder central districts of La Ma.ncha. and Old Castile ; but it also remains there throughout the year, in the midst of high cultivation, and maintains itself, by its own wary habits, without legal protection, amongst a population who are very ready to kill it by any means, however unsportsmanlike. Some of these de- vices are almost identical with those used in Norfolk, water in hot weather taking the place of corn or turnips as a bait for the birds, which are shot from ambush. To the fair sports- man it offers the opportunity of stalking it with a rifle, or " driving ; " for though slow to rise it has a powerful flight, and the stories of its former capture in this country by means of greyhounds are generally discredited. There Lord Lilford has seen them on the Giralda of Seville from the begin- ning of February till the end of September. "In February flocks, varying in number from eight or ten to sixty or more, are to be seen on all the pasture and corn lands of the district, especially on the right of the Gaadalquiver a few miles above Seville, a country of rolling down-land, for the most part under cultivation." This ground very closely corresponds with the conditions of most of the Berkshire and Wiltshire Downs, and is more highly cultivated than that part of Salisbury Plain which is passing into the hands of the War Office. The birds are so far from disliking cultivated land that they nest in the young wheat in the great alluvial plains of the lower Guadalquiver, just as they did by preference in the young rye in Norfolk. They usually do not lay more than two or sometimes three eggs, and nest early, at the end of April. The eggs are thus liable to be destroyed when the corn is rolled, or taken by the labourers em- ployed in hoeing, risks more common probably in this country than in Spain. While the hen birds are sitting in the corn the male bustards stalk about in the cattle pastures. "Many of these fields barely afford sufficient covert to conceal a lark ; here these splendid birds may be observed in all their .glory of perfect nuptial plumage, and conscious strength and beauty, stalking about with a stealthy and deliberate gait, and showing off, apparently from pure pride of life, in turkey- cock fashion."
A cleverly stuffed cock bustard at the Natural History Museum at South Kensington shows this curious nuptial display of the bird. It is a very large male, which weighed 37 lb., and was presented by Mr. Abel Chapman. The head is buried in the neck, which is greatly inflated ; the " beard " is brought up on either side of the head ; and the tail and wings seem to have been turned inside out and arranged over its back. Beneath the outer brown and black feathers are beautifully curved pare white ones, both in wings and tail, which cover the whole of the back, as if arranged by a feather- -dresser. Lord Lilford's experiences may be supplemented from some interesting chapters in Messrs. Abel Chapman and W. J. Back's Wild Spain." It is evident that the birds are just as much at home, and as well, or better, able to take care of themselves, as are partridges in this country, on the "vast stretches of silent corn-land" which are the Spanish bustards' home. "Among the objects of sport there are few more attractive scenes than a band of bustards at rest. Bring your field-glasses to bear on that gathering which you see yonder, basking in the sunshine, in the full enjoyment of their siesta. There are four or five and twenty of them ; and how immense they look against the background of sprout- ing oorn which covers the landscape; a stranger might well
mistake them for deer or goats. Most of the birds are sitting turkey fashion, their heads sunk among their feathers; others stand in drowsy yet half-suspicions attitudes, their broad backs resplendent with those mottled hues of true game-colour, and their lavender necks and well. poised heads contrasting with the snowy whiteness of their lower plumage." This is a sketch largely from the sportsman's point of view ; but as sportsmen are likely to take a prominent share in the coming restoration of the bird, those who are not familiar with this description may derive souse encouragement from such an agreeable picture. "Driving bustards" is evidently an exciting and artistic form of sport, and the birds, except the old cocks, are excellent for the table. It is evident that in Spain they are not averse to modern cultivation ; in fact, they prefer the corn-lands. The story of their disap- pearance in Norfolk shows that, so far from disliking corn- laud, they were only too fund of it. They would lay their eggs in the winter-sown wheat, which is high and green early in spring. When wheat began to be drilled and hoed, instead of being sown broadcast, every bustard's nest was found. Though forbidden by the Act of 25 Henry VIII., thew eggs were taken by the farm boys and labourers, and kept as curiosities or eaten. As there were only two " droves " left early in the present century, one in the open country round Swaffhatu, the other near Thetford, of which the former only numbered twenty-seven in or about the year 1820, while after the year 1812 the Thetford "drove" was only reckoned at twenty - four, it is not strange that with constant "egging" and occasional shooting they disappeared. The last nest in Norfolk was probably that made on a farm at Great Massingham in 183'5 or 1836, from which some eggs were taken, one of whieb ie preserved. The destruction of the eggs and killia of the birds is dearly within the limits of prevention ; and no County Council would refuse a resolution to enforce the law, which still exists, against the taking of bustards' eggs. The bird, its eggs, and young are already protected by Sec. 21 of the Game Act of 1831, which also gives it a close season from March 1st to September 1st, and makes a license necessary to kill it, and trespass in its pursuit an offence under the Act. There remains the question whether any change in the surface of the country has taken place which might render their old haunts less acceptable to the birds. The answer is in the negative, except in the ease of those very parts of Norfolk in which it lingered latest. This region, known as the " breck " district, was subject to constant sandstorms, and the blowing sand cut and injured the young wheat. To stop thia belts of trees were planted, and its open character changed. This, Mr. Stevenson considered, "rendered it entirely unsuitable to the wary habits of the bastard." But the whole of the Berkshire and Wiltshire Downs, the Wields of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and much of the Fen district, is still ideal ground for the bird. It must be remembered that the bustard, though resident formerly all the year in England, is potentially migratory. Stray birds do occasionally appear still from overseas, one of the last being seen in the Fens. Lord Lilford obtained a mate for this bird ; but it died one cold night after it was liberated, and the cock bird then dis- appeared.
Among the causes of its disappearance no one ever suggests that the bird was destructive to crops or a nuisance to the farmer. In Spain its diet varies at different seasons. Fo:- animal food it likes frogs, mice, lizards, earth- worms, snails, beetles, locusts, and grasshoppers; the latter it devours with particular relish. Its taste in vegetables is leas to the farmer's liking. It eats green corn, especially barley, clover, the leaves of mallow, chick-peas, and vetches. In Norfolk its food was much the same, with the substitution of turnip-tops for chick-peas; it also ate seeds of weeds and the leaves of colewort and dandelion. Every one will hope that the return of the bustard will not long be delayed, and that those who undertake its restoration may meet with ready and willing help from their neighbours, rich and poor It is probable that it never was, and never will be, very numerous as a species. But public interest is alive to sub- jects of this kind at present, and the moment is favourable for the attempt.
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