Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/158

136 snare, indiscriminately used, have banished it. One way of destroying it was by baiting a spot within range of a battery of shot guns, so laid that a person at a distance could, by means of a long string, discharge them when the bustards came sufficiently near. Two or three years ago a male bustard was seen on the fens, and every effort was made by the landowners to keep it safe. They even turned out two female birds in the hope that it would pair with one and breed; but after staying about for a few days it flew away, and was not again seen.

(Otis taraa).

LETTER III.

, Jan. 15th, 1770.

,—It was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you were not displeased with my little methodus of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its punctuality. For many months I carried a list in my pocket of