File:Lost and vanishing birds; being a record of some remarkable extinct species and a plea for some threatened forms (1898) (14728578286).jpg

Identifier: lostvanishingbir00dixo (find matches)
Title: Lost and vanishing birds; being a record of some remarkable extinct species and a plea for some threatened forms
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Dixon, Charles, 1858-1926
Subjects: Birds -- England Extinct birds
Publisher: London, J. Macqueen
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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d colour,spotted and blotched with reddish brown and grey.She alone appears to incubate them. If disturbed,she glides very quietly away, running for somedistance before taking wing. But one brood isreared in the season. The male Great Bustard has the head grey; thegeneral colour of the upper parts is chestnut buff,barred with black; the primaries are black, theremainder of the wings white ; the breast is bandedwith chestnut and grey; the remainder of theunder parts is white. There is a tuft of long whitebristly feathers or plumes on each side at thebase of the bill. The female wants these accessaryplumes, and the pectoral bands are absent. Themale also possesses in some cases (possibly in veryold birds) an air pouch or sac opening under thetongue, but its exact use is not yet fully ascertained.An old cock Great Bustard is from thirty-six toforty-three inches in length, and may weigh as muchas thirtjj-five pounds; but the hen is considerablysmaller, not much more than half that weight.
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m H OO> THE AVOCET (recur virostra a vocetta) TTERE again we have a species which has been-^ wantonly exterminated in Britain duringthe first quarter of the present century. Therecords of the persecution of this beautiful andcurious bird are sad and exasperating in theextreme. Can it be believed that at the beginningof the nineteenth century the pretty, gentle,inoffensive Avocet was one of our commonestsummer migrants to the fens and marshes of theeastern counties ? Now—and for nearly eightyyears, too—it is lost to us for ever; for no humanefforts can restore it to the Fens again ! Previousto that date there is evidence to show that itsdistribution in this country was much wider still.At the close of the eighteenth century the Avocetbred on Romney marshes, whilst there are earlierrecords of its presence in the Severn district andin Staffordshire. The last-known colony of 74 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS Avocets was situated at Salthouse in the FenCountry, but this was destroyed betw

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