Bustard, or Otis tarda, in ornithology, is said to be the largest of the British land-fowl; its breadth, with expanded wings, being nine feet 5 the length nearly four; and the male weighing from 25, to 27 pounds. - The female is about half the size of the male, and marked with different shades of colour.

Bustards inhabit most of the open countries lying to the south and east parts of this island, from Dorsetshire, as far as the Wolds of Yorkshire. In. autumn, they are (in Wiltshire) generally found in large turnip-fields, near the Downs, and in flights of fifty or more. They are exceedingly shy, and dif-ficult to be shot) run very fast, and fly, though slowly, many miles without resting: and, as they take flight with difficulty, they are sometimes run down by greyhounds. Corn and other vege-tables are their usual food ; but they are very fond of those large earth-worms which appear in great. numbers on the downs, in the summer-mornings, before sun-rise. These are replete with moisture, answer the purpose of liquid food, and enable them to live long without drinking. Nature has provided the males with an admirable magazine for their security against drought being a pouch, the entrance of which lies immediately under the tongue, and is capable of holding near seven quarts; this they probably fill with water, to supply the females when sitting, or the young before they are fledged. Bustards lay only two eggs, resembling those of a goose, of a pale olive-brown, marked with spots of a dark colour : they build no nest, but only scrape a hole in the ground.