A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 194. Great Bustard. Otis tarda, Linn. Much has been written on the great bustards of SuflFollc, but as this fine old county family became extinct about 1830 it is pretty certain that there is no one now living who can claim a personal acquaintance with them, and a writer in the twentieth century must fall back on information previously published. The history of the Norfolk and Suffolk bustards has been most carefully recorded in the Birds of l<!$rfolk (i. 1-42, and iii. 396- 407), and Dr. Babington [Catalogue, pp. 1 1 1—3) has taken great trouble to preserve a record of the occurrences in this county. This superb game bird had its headquarters in the north-west on the warrens or brecks about Elveden, Eriswell and Icklingham. Mr. W. Bilson, for many years a bird-stuffer at Bury, who was born in 1808 and died in 1894, well remembered the Icklingham bustards, and on one occasion saw as many as six at once. This would probably be about 1824. Only four specimens of the old native race seem to be in existence, and none of them remain in the county. There is one in the Cambridge Museum from Icklingham ; one in the Norwich Museum obtained at Elveden in 1 8 15; one in the collection of Mr. Lucas of Burgh in Norfolk, killed at Eriswell about 1829 ; and one was for many years at Riddlesworth Hall, which was killed at Cavenham, and at the Riddlesworth sale in 1894 passed into a private collection. All these are females. Dr. Babington mentions also the particulars of four Suffolk eggs which were intact when he wrote in 1886. After the old race had become extinct Suffolk remained for about forty years unvisited by bustards, but in January, 1876, a fine male appeared at Feltwell in Norfolk, where he remained for a month and was subsequently seen at Eriswell and Elveden (H. M. Upcher in Zoologist, 1876, p. 4882, where full details are given). During the winter of 1890— i several hen bustards were killed in England, one of them in Mildenhall Fen on 5 February, 1 89 1. Mr. Hewlett of Newmarket met a fen-man with the bird in his hand and at once purchased it. He mounted it and after- wards sold it to Mr. Walter Rothschild of Tring Park, in whose museum it still remains. An attempt was made some ten years later to re-establish the bustard on the Elveden estate where seventeen birds imported from Spain were turned down. The experiment un- fortunately was not successful as the majority of the birds disappeared, and in December, 1 90 1, only four remained, of which one had a damaged wing (J. H. Gurney in Zoologist, 1902, p. 84). Two of the birds strayed to Finningham, where they were shot by a keeper in June, 190 1, and though the shooter was prosecuted and fined for killing game out of season the mischief was done. These two birds, a hen and a young cock, were pre- sented to the Ipswich Museum. In the autumn of 1902 one of the four survivors was shot just over the Cambridgeshire border and all hope of the birds increasing was at an end, though a cock and hen were alive and well in April, 1903, of which the hen had laid two infertile eggs in 1902 (Mr. W. Hill). 195. Little Bustard. Otis tetrax, Linn. There is no reason to believe that this bird was ever anything but the rare visitant to Britain that it is now. Nearly all the Suffolk examples have been met with in autumn or winter, but the only one obtained since the ' seventies ' is a remarkable exception. This was a fine male shot at Kessingland on 30 May, 1898, which was in perfect breeding plumage, and in this respect unique as a British specimen. An illustration reproduced from a photograph with details will be found in the Zoologist for 1899, p. 120. 196. Stone-Curlew. (Edicnemus scolopax (S.G. Gmelin) Locally, Culloo or Cullew. A summer migrant arriving about the end of March and still fairly common in those parts of the county which were once the haunt of the bustard. There are also some on the commons and in the fields adjoining the coast, and in May, 1901, a clutch of eggs was found near Southwold. The two eggs often differ a good deal in shape, one being much rounder than the other, and this was the case with a clutch remarkable for the minute freckles on both eggs found near Mildenhall in 1902. 'Many of the first clutches are broken by harrowing and rolling. It is a curious fact that keepers who have excellent opportunities of observing these birds state that they see them occasionally during every month of the winter ' (Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain). One was picked up alive near Bury in November, 1902, apparently nipped by the cold, but it soon recovered and was eventually sent to an aviary in Yorkshire. In January, 1889, one was shot at Barrow, and as a note made at the time mentions that it was in poor plumage and condition it may have been a wounded bird. This bird is also known as the great plover, Norfolk plover and thick-knee. The large bright yellow eye is very beautiful in the living bird, and indicates the nocturnal habits of the species. 204
