The Bustard

From The Warminster And District Companion, Volume One, published in April 2003:

THE BUSTARD
Some notes by Danny Howell, John Daniell, and Richard Cope.

Danny Howell writes:
The Great Bustard (otis tarda) is the heaviest flying bird in the world, with the fully adult cock birds weighing more than 50 lbs. Extinct in Britain since the 1870s, it was until 1830 a common sight on Salisbury Plain, hence its depiction on the crest of Wiltshire County Council.

The Reverend John Jeremiah Daniell, in his History Of Warminster, published in 1879, noted:

“The Bustard might have been seen on Warminster Down about the year 1800. A man, on horseback, crossing the Plain to Tilshead, early on a morning in June, saw over his head a large bird; it alighted on the ground in front of his horse, which it seemed disposed to attack: he dismounted, and after nearly an hour’s struggle, secured it. It proved to be a Bustard, and was sold to Lord Temple for thirty guineas; it ate birds, mice, and almost any animal or vegetable food. About a fortnight after, a farmer returning from Warminster Market, was attacked in the same way, it is thought by the mate of the former bird; his horse being high-mettled, took fright, and became unmanageable, so that he could not capture the Bustard.”

An attempt was made in the 1970s to breed Great Bustards in captivity at Porton Down, with hopes of re-establishing them on the Plain, but this proved unsuccessful.

As this volume of The Warminster & District Companion was nearing completion it was announced in the press that a new attempt was going to be made to re-introduce the Great Bustard on to Salisbury Plain.

The Great Bustard Group, working in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London and Stirling University were planning to bring at least 25 Bustard chicks from Saratov in Russia, having  obtained a licence from DEFRA (the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) after four year’s preliminary work. Six Russian experts were due to arrive on Friday 18th April 2003, and would be staying, rather appropriately, at the Bustard Inn, near    Rollestone. As well as concentrating on the all-important avian matters, the experts were hoping to visit Stonehenge Ales, at  Netheravon, to try a pint or two of Great Bustard beer.

The new project has been heralded as part of an effort to restoring a grassland corridor across Europe for the birds. The new chicks have been hatched from eggs removed from fields where they would have been destroyed by the use of agricultural machinery. Following quarantine precautions, the birds would be acclimatised in a release pen, prior to being let free on to the Plain. Human contact would be minimised.

The hope has been expressed that the project, if successful this time, could attract more visitors to Wiltshire, thus adding to the local income for those in the tourist trade.

The Warminster & Wylye Valley Society For Local Study wishes the new project well, and by way of celebrating this initiative, shares the following article with readers and interested individuals. It was originally included in Richard Cope’s Complete Natural History (compiled from the works of Buffon, Goldsmith, Cuvier, Shaw, Vaillant, “The Bustard is the largest native land-bird in Britain. It was once much more numerous than it is at present; but the increased cultivation of the country, and the extreme delicacy of its flesh, has greatly thinned the species; so that a time may come when it may be doubted whether so large a bird was ever bred among us. It is probable, that long before this the bustard would have been extirpated, but for its peculiar manner of feeding. Had it continued to seek shelter among our woods, in proportion as they were cut down, it must have been destroyed. If in the forest, the fowler might approach it without being seen; and the bird from its size, would be too great a mark to be easily missed. But it only inhabits the open and extensive plain, where its food is to be found in abundance, and where every invader may be seen at a distance.

The bustard is much larger than the turkey, the male generally weighing from twenty-five to twenty-seven pounds. The neck is a foot long, and the legs a foot and a half. The wings are not proportionable to the rest of the body, being four feet from the tip of the one to the other; for which reason the bird flies with great difficulty. The head and neck of the male are ash-coloured; the back is barred transversely with black, bright, and rust colour. The greater quill feathers are black; the belly white; and the tail, which consists of twenty feathers, is marked with broad black bars.

These birds are frequently seen in flocks of fifty or more, in the extensive downs of Salisbury Plain, in the heaths of Sussex and Cambridgeshire, the Dorsetshire uplands, and even as far north as East Lothian in Scotland. In those extensive plains, where there are neither woods nor hedges to screen the sportsman, the bustards enjoy an indolent security. Their food is composed of the berries that grow among the heath, and the large earth-worms that appear in great quantities on the downs before sunrise in summer. In vain does the fowler creep forward to approach them; they have always sentinels placed at proper eminences, which are ever on the watch, and warn the flock of the smallest appearance of danger. All, therefore, that is left the sportsman, is the comfortless view of their distant security. He may wish, but they are in safety.

It sometimes happens that these birds, though they are seldom shot  by the gun, are often run down by greyhounds. As they are voracious and greedy, they often sacrifice their safety to their appetite, and over-feed themselves to such an extent, that they are unable to fly without great preparation. When the greyhound, therefore, comes within a certain distance, the bustard runs off flapping its wings, and endeavouring to gather air enough under them to rise; in the mean time, the enemy approaches nearer and nearer, till it is too late for the bird even to think of obtaining safety by flight; for just at the rise there is always time lost, and of this the bird is sensible; it continues therefore, on foot until it has got a sufficient distance before the dog to allow it to prepare for flight, or until it is taken.

As there are few places where they can at once find proper food and security, so they generally continue near their old haunts, seldom wandering above twenty or thirty miles from home. As their food is replete with moisture, it enables them to live upon these dry plains, where there are scarcely any springs of water, a long time without drinking. Besides this, nature has provided the males with an admirable magazine for their security against thirst. This is a pouch, the entrance to which lies immediately under the tongue; it is capable of holding nearly seven quarts of water. This is probably filled upon proper occasions, to supply the hen when sitting, or the young before they fly.

Like all other birds of the poultry kind, they change their mates at the season of incubation, which is about the latter end of summer. They separate in pairs if there be a sufficiency of females for the males; but when this happens to be otherwise, the males fight until one of them falls. In France, some of these victims to gallantry are often found dead in the fields, and no doubt the finders are not displeased at the occasion.

They make their nests upon the ground, merely scraping a hole in the earth, and sometimes lining it with a little long grass or straw. There they lay two eggs only, almost the size of those of a goose, of a pale olive brown, marked with spots of a darker colour. They hatch in about five weeks, and the young ones run about as soon as they are out of the shell.

The bustards assemble in flocks in the month of October, and keep together till April. In winter as their food becomes scarce, they support themselves indiscriminately, by feeding on moles, mice, and even little birds, when they can seize them. For want of other food, they are contented to live upon turnip leaves, and such little succulent vegetables. In some parts of Switzerland, they are found frozen in the fields in severe weather, but when taken to a warm place, they again recover. They usually live fifteen years, and are incapable of being propagated in a domestic state, as they probably want that food which best agrees with their appetite.”

The Bustard as illustrated in Complete Natural History compiled by Richard Cope LL.D., F.A.S. 1840.

The Great Bustard s depicted on the crest of Wiltshire County Council.