for the latter. This favour he gratefully acknowledged | von dem Zustande der Wissenschaften und Künste în dem in his will by leaving 50l. to the poor housekeepers in Dänischen Reichen und Ländern,' 3 vols. 8vo., Copenthat parish, having already bequeathed to the parish for hagen, 1754-65; besides numerous other works of geocharitable purposes an estate of 5251. per annum, and graphy, biography, education, and likewise on religions very nearly 5000l. in personal property. In 1639 he was subjects. His History of the Lutheran Churches in admitted to the prebend and rectory of Cudworth in the Russia, Poland, and Lithuania,' has been mentioned with church of Wells, and on the 13th of December in the praise. Of his biographies, that of the great Frederic has following year he was appointed head master of West- been translated into French by D'Arnex-Caractère de minster school, in which occupation he laboured du- Frederic II. 8vo., Bern, 1788. Büsching was a most inring more than half a century, and by his diligence.defatigable writer, honest and independent; and he laboured learning, and assiduity has become the proverbial repre- earnestly for the advancement of education and general sentative of his class. In July, 1660, he was installed as information. The Prussian government afforded him enprebendary of Westminster, and in the following August couragement and support; and in his latter years his corhe became canon residentiary and treasurer of Wells. At respondence, which was very extensive, was made free of the coronation of Charles II. in 1661 he had the honour of postage charges. He died at Berlin, in May, 1793. carrying the ampulla. His benefactions were numerous and most liberal. He died April 6th, 1695, full of years and reputation, and was buried under a suitable monument in Westminster Abbey. His works were principally for the use of his school, and consist for the most part either of expurgated editions of certain classics which he wished his boys to read in a harmless form, or grammatical treatises, chiefly in a metrical form. The severity of his disciplíne is traditional, but we do not find that it rests upon any sound authority; and strange as it may appear, no records are preserved of him in the school over which he so long presided. The accusation of devilish covetousness' brought against him by the gossiping Pepys (Memoirs, iii. 211) is sufficiently disproved by the munificence of his will, in which he did not capriciously endow public institutions which accident suggested to him on a deathbed, but fulfilled a design long entertained of bequeathing sums to be employed in useful purposes by the heads of those places of education to his connexion with which he was indebted for all his wealth. BUSHEL. This word seems to be a diminution of an Fleta describes the bushel as containing eight pounds BUSHIRE. [ABOUSHEHR.] BUSKIN, a covering for the leg, commonly a strong BÜSCHING, ANTON FRIEDRICH, was born at Stadthagen, in Westphalia, studied at Halle, and afterwards went to Petersburg as tutor to the children of Count Lynar, the Danish ambassador to the court of Russia. He was early struck with the want of good geographical works in his time, and he applied himself to supply the deficiency. Having gone to Copenhagen, he published, in 1752, a description of the duchies of Holstein and Sleswick, which was much approved of. In 1754 he was appointed professor of philosophy at Göttingen, and would have obtained the chair of theology in that university but for a treatise in which he expressed opinions which were considered as swerving from Lutheran orthodoxy. About 1760 he was elected pastor of the German Protestant church at Petersburg, where he remained four years, and founded a Lyceum, which soon became one of the best institutions for education in the Russian capital. Having disagreed with Count Munich, who was protector of the German church, he left Petersburg in 1765, notwithstanding the solicitations of the Empress Catherine, who wished to retain him in Russia. In 1766 he was appointed Director of the gymnasium of Grauen Kloster, at Berlin. He composed for that institution a number of elementary works, which became very popular in North Germany. Büsching however is more generally known for his Neue Erdbescreibung' or Universal ⚫ Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, Geography, the first part of which appeared in 1754. In Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear.' 1759 he had completed the description of Europe in eight BUSSAHER or BUSSAHIR, a principality in Northern volumes, which became a standard work. He was one of the Hindustan, occupying a mountainous tract on both sides of first modern writers who introduced in a work of descriptive the Himalaya range. Bussaher is bounded on the N.W. by geography statistical information on the wealth, industry, the Sutleje, on the S. and S.E. by the Jumna, on the S.W. commerce, and institutions of the various countries. His by Sirmore, and on the N. and E. it extends to the empire statements were made after careful inquiry, and were gene- of China. Over a considerable part of this territory, the rally accurate. Büsching's description of Europe was trans-boundaries of which are but imperfectly known, the rajah lated into English-A new System of Geography,' 6 vols. 4to., London, 1762. His account of the northern countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany, is the most full and elaborate part of the work. Germany, in particular, is treated very minutely, and occupies about one-half of the whole. It was translated into French under the title Atlas Historique et Géographique de l'Empire d'Allemagne,' 4 vols. 4to. It is still valuable as a book of reference about the late German empire. Büsching's whole work went through eight editions in his lifetime, and was translated into the principal European languages. In 1768 he published the 1st vol. of Asia, which treated of Asiatic Turkey and Arabia, but went no further with it. He published also Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie,' 23 th. 4to., Hamburg and Halle, 1767-93.-Nachrichten of Bussaher exercises only a kind of feudal superiority, the Bussaher is divided into the districts of Kunawur; the n und Künste 3 vols. 8vo., Ca other works di ikewise on rig theran Chur -een mentioned e great Freder Tex-'Cara ing was a m ent: and he he cation and p nt afforded in atter years hi - was made May, 1793 a dinibus or vessel, and ew Paris f lural. Ins -llus (wher from baits the Langua nd, fr sta and having long interrupted the tranquillity of Paris by private brawls and combats, in which he set at nought the terrors of the Bastile and the authority of the king, he became so odious to Henry III. by frequent acts of presumption, that he gave information to Charles de Chambes, Count of Montsoreau, of an intrigue which Bussy carried on with his wife. The secret had been revealed to the king by his brother of Anjou, to whom Bussy had jestingly written in one of his letters that he had the game of the mighty master in his toils. Montsoreau compelled the wretched adulteress to write a letter with her own hand, making an assignation in the Château de Constancieres, where the injured husband awaited Bussy with a numerous ambuscade armed men, and, in spite of a most courageous resistance, put him to death on August 19th, 1579. (De Thou, lxviii. 9.) the latter country is under the dominion of the grand lama Rampore, the capital of the principality, is situated in The third district, that which contains the valley of the river Paber, is the most productive part of the principality, but some portion even of this is wild and barren. Iron ore is found in this district, and is worked, when the iron forms an article of export to the Seik countries. Dasau produces wheat and barley, but not rice. Near the villages and in sheltered spots, apricots, gooseberries, and currants are found, but the trees and bushes are stunted. The greatest part of the wealth of the inhabitants consists of ponies and mules. Manufactures of coarse blanketing are carried on in the district. In other parts of Bussaher woollen cloths of a superior texture are made, the wool being of excellent quality; a small quantity of shawls are likewise made of goat's and sheep's wool mixed. Bussaher receives from Hindustan sugar, cotton, hardwares, and indigo, and makes returns in iron, opium, tobacco, turmeric, and blankets. From Tibet and the Chinese territories are brought shawl-wool, salt, tea, silk goods, musk, and borax: the returns are grain, iron, and opium, cotton cloths, indigo, and other articles received from the lower parts of Hindustan. The principality was conquered in 1810 by the Gorkas, and remained subject to them until 1814, when it was, through the armed intervention of the British, restored to the rajah, who, by a sunnud or treaty, dated in November, 1815. was made to contribute an annual sum of 15,000 rupees towards the expense of the force maintained by us; four forts on the banks of the Paber were retained by the British as stations for the protecting troops, and in the event of war, the rajah of Bussaher bound himself to place his troops under the orders of the British. The whole principality is thinly inhabited, but no attempt has been made to ascertain the actual population. (Reports of Committee of House of Commons, 1832.) Brantôme (Discours, lxxxv.) has made what he calls an éloge of Bussy. It contains nothing more than anecdotes of his pugnacity, which the writer mistakes for true courage, and a frightful picture of the misrule and demoralization of the reign of Henry III. A single line in the epitaph of Bussy, which is there given, conveys a finished portrait of his character Son plaisir fut sa mort, ses plaisirs ses combats.' BUST, in sculpture, means a statue truncated below the breast. The etymology of the word is not very clear. The Romans called 'bustum' the place where they burnt the bodies of the dead, from bustum,' burnt. Bustum was was afterwards used for the grave in which the body was buried; and lastly, in the latinity of the lower ages, for the dead body itself: Sanctorum busta,' the bodies of martyrs (Dueange). Bustum seems to have been used more especially for the trunk of the body without the head: Quinque hominum busta sine capite cæsa. (Annal. Mediolan, in Muratori.) In the old French, 'bu' meant the trunk: 'Car ils ont bien armé le chef et le bu.' (Old French Romance, Ducange.) 'Busto, in Spanish and Italian, has a similar meaning. The Italians call also 'busto' the stays which embrace and support the breast. In sculpture, however, bust includes the head, shoulders, and breast, with the arms truncated above the elbow, and as such, it forms a large department of the art. Busts were mostly used by the antients to represent likenesses of individuals, and were placed either upon sepulchral monuments, or in the interior of houses, or in gardens. The Greek word Herme has been sometimes considered as synonymous with the modern bust, but the Hermee were merely heads placed on a block of stone. BUSTAR, a district and town in Gundwana, the latter situated in 19° 31' N. lat. and 82° 28' E. long. The part of the country in which this district occurs has been very little explored; it is difficult of access, and so unhealthy as to discourage the visits of travellers. This district is occupied by a branch of the range of mountains that runs through the Circars parallel to the bay of Bengal. Nearly the whole of the country consists of hills covered with jungle, and of unhealthy morasses; the remainder, constituting not more than one-fifteenth part of the entire area, is very imperfectly cultivated by the scanty population, who live almost in a state of nature, and subsist on the produce of the chase. The principal river in Bustar is the Inderowty or Indravati, which is not navigable owing to the rocks in its bed. The forests of this district abound with teak trees large enough for ship-building; and it is said, that if made into rafts they could be floated down the Inderowty to its junction with the Godavery, and thence to the bay of Bengal. The river Mahanuddy has its source in this district, and flows eastward to Sumbulpore, which district it enters a few miles east of Sri Narrain. The inhabitants are extremely ignorant and superstitious; the practice of sacrificing human victims to the goddess Devata Iswari Devi, continued to a recent date, but has been stopped through the interference of the British. All culprits and prisoners of war, and, when this supply failed, their innocent fellow-countrymen were sacrificed at the shrine of the goddess. The zemindar of Bustar is subject to the Nagpore state, and pays to it an annual tribute of 15,000 rupees. BUSSY D'AMBOISE, LOUIS DE CLERMONT UNIVERSIDA RAZ (DONACIÓN PACHECO) BIBLIOTECA Cuvier arranges the eight pounds, and 'shot, about six years ago,the date of the volume is 1825,-by the Rev. Robert Hamond of Swaffham in Norfolk, in whose possession it then was, as well as two females, and a young bird of a month old. The following is Selby's description : Bustards under the Pressirostres, his second family of his fifth order (E'chassiers,Gralla, Lin.) of birds, between the Cassowaries on one side and Edicnemus (thick-kneed bustard or stone curlew) on the other. Temminck makes Cursorius immediately succeed it, and observes that among the species of that genus the passage between Otis and Cursorius may be possibly found. It appears that the bustards partake of the organization of the struthious, gallinaceous, and wading birds (E'chassiers,-grallatores). Rhea, without alluding to the Dodo on the struthious side, Edicnemus on that of the plovers, and the turkey on the side of the gallinaceous birds, make near approaches to the genus under consideration, while the Cariama of Brisson (Mi-ear-coverts, and covering the gular pouch. Sides of the crodactylus of Geoffroy, Dicholophus' of Illiger), a South American form, seems to be one of its nearest representatives on the new continent (Cariama). Vigors places the genus in his family Struthionida-(order Rasores) which occupies a position between the Cracida and the Tetraonida, while it approximates to the Gruida and Charadriade in the order Grallatores; and, taking all the circumstances into consideration, this seems to be the best arrangement hitherto proposed. Male. Bill strong, greyish white; the under mandible palest. Head, nape of the neck, and ear-coverts, bluish grey. A streak of black passes along the crown of the head, reaching to the occiput.. Chin-feathers and mous taches composed of long, wiry feathers, with the barbs disunited and short. Fore part of the neck clothed with naked bluish-black skin, extending upwards toward the neck white, tinged with grey; lower part of the neck fine reddish orange. At the setting on of the neck, or between the shoulders, is a space destitute of feathers, but covered with a soft grey down. Scapulars buff orange, barred and spotted with black. Back, rump, and tail-coverts reddish orange, barred and variegated with black. Greater coverts and some of the secondaries bluish grey, passing towards the tips into greyish white. Quills brownish black, with their shafts white. Tail-feathers white at their bases, passing towards the middle into brownish orange, with one or two black bars; the tips often white, and, when the feathers are spread laterally, forming a segment of a circle. Upper part of the breast reddish orange; lower part, belly, and vent white. Legs black, covered with round scales. Irides reddish brown. The bustards live generally in open countries, preferring plains or wide-spreading extensive downs dotted with low bushes and underwood, localities which give them an opportunity of descrying their enemy from afar. They are said to fly but rarely, running from danger with exceeding swiftness, and using their wings like the ostriches to accelerate their course. When they do take wing their flight is low, and they skim along the ground with a sufficiently rapid and sustained flight. Their food consists of vegetables, insects, worms, grain, and seeds. They are polygamous, one male sufficing for many females, which, after fecundation, live solitary. Temminck says that it would seem that they moult twice a-year, and that the males in the greatest number of species differ from the females in having extraordinary ornaments, and in possessing a more variegated plumage. He further observes, that the young males wear the garb of the female during the first and second year, and adds his suspicion that the males in winter have the same plumage as the females. Cuvier notices their massy port and the slightly arched and vaulted upper mandible of their beak, which, with the little webs or palmations between the bases of their toes, recal the form of the gallinaceous birds; but he adds that the nudity of the lower part of their legs, all their anatomy, and even the flavour of their flesh, place them among the E'chassiers, and that, as they have no hind toe, their smallest species approach nearly to the plovers. The following is the generic character given by Temminck, slightly modified. Bill of the length of the head or shorter, straight, conical, compressed, or lightly depressed at the base; point of the upper mandible a little arched (voutée.) Nostrils oval, open, approximated, distant from the base. Feet long, naked above the knee, three front toes short, united at their base, bordered by membranes. Wings moderate, the third quill longest in each wing. Geographical distribution. The form occurs in Europe, Asia, and Africa; but is not developed in America. EUROPEAN SPE Of these the great Bustard, Olis, and Avis tarda, of Belon and others, Ostarde, Houtarde, Outarde, Bistarde of the French, Starda and Starda commune of the Italians, Der grosse Trappe, Trapp, Trappgans, and Ackentrapp of the Germans, Abutarda (avis tarda) of the Spaniards, Gustard of the old Scotch, Yr araf ehedydd of the Welsh, and Otis tarda of Linnæus, will serve as an example. The gular pouch is capable of containing a considerable quantity of water, Pennant says seven pints; Montagu talks of the same number of quarts but doubts the quantity, as he well may, nor does he give any authority for the greater capacity. May not he have misread Pennant, who obtained his information from Dr. Douglas, said to have been the first discoverer of this reservoir? In a specimen mentioned by Graves, weighing twenty-two pounds and a half, the pouch was capable of containing rather more than two quarts. Dr. Douglas supposes that the bird fills this natural water-bag as a supply in the midst of those dreary plains where it is accustomed to wander; | and Bewick adds that one of these birds, which was kept in a caravan, among other animals, as a show, lived without drinking. It was fed with leaves of cabbages and other greens, and also with flesh and bread. Others conjecture that this pouch is a provision for conveying water to the female during the time of incubation and to the young. It is true that the female is without this appendage; but it should be remembered that the best authorities agree in stating that the male is never seen in close company with the female excepting before incubation. Some again suppose that the use of this bag is to enable the bird to eject the water by muscular compression in the faces of birds or beasts of prey, by way of a defence. The average length of a male is three feet three inches. Female.-Head and forepart of the neck of a deeper grey, Size seldom Young. At a month old covered with a buff-coloured From passages in the History of Animals' (ii. 17. vi. 6), there can be scarcely a doubt that our great bustard is Aristotle's wriç (Otis). Indeed the doubts originated in a misunderstood passage in the thirty-third chapter of his ninth book; and it is clear from several authorities that the bird and the quality of its flesh were well known to the Greeks. Pliny evidently alludes to these birds as those quas Hispania aves tardas appellat, Græcia otidas' (Nat. Hist. x. 22), though he blunders about the flesh, telling an absurd story of its effects, which arises from his confounding the wris with Aristotle's wróg (Otus), an owl. Description. Selby's figure of the male was taken from a particularly fine full-grown specimen, weighing twenty • See, however, the habits of Otis Tarda, post. Prince Bonaparte mentions it as occurring near Rome in three great bustards were seen about a mile from it. They shift about from place to place, and are seldom seen but in the open country. We earnestly hope that every one, sportsman or no sportsman, will respect this little remnant of the numerous flocks which once graced our island, and second the endeavours of the spirited owner of the property on which they have found refuge to save the breed of this noble bird from utter extinction in England. In the eastern part of the county we fear that it is quite lost, though it was comparatively common some time ago. It is the more necessary to impress on our readers the importance of abstaining from the preserved few above alluded to, because there is not much hope of replenishing the breed by captive birds. Graves's male bird above mentioned lived about three years in confinement; and, though a female was procured from the continent, she never laid while confined. These birds ate turnip, cabbage, and lettuce leaves, also the blades of young corn; during the winter they were fed with grain, which they always preferred when soaked in water; they would likewise devour worms and slugs. Food.-Willughby says that the bustard feeds upon corn, seeds of herbs, colewort, dandelion leaves, &c. In the stomach of one which he dissected he found a great quantity of hemlock-seed, with three or four grains of barley, and that in harvest time. Brookes states that they feed upon frogs, mice, small birds, and different kinds of insects. Pennant makes their food to consist of corn and other vegetables, and those large earth-worms that appear on the Downs before sun-rising in the summer. Montagu states it to be green corn, the tops of turnips, and various other vegetables, as well as worms; but adds, that they have been known to eat frogs, mice, and young birds of the smaller kind, which they can swallow whole. Turnip-tops are certainly a favourite article of diet with these birds; and we believe that the nine bustards above-mentioned owed their fate to their fondness for this vegetable-being laid in wait for at their feeding-time. Temminck says that their nourishment consists very much of insects and worms, and also of grain and seeds, Propagation. The eggs, two in number generally, sometimes three, are laid upon the bare ground, which is often a little hollowed out by the female (occasionally, says Selby, among clover, but more frequently in cornfields), early in the spring. They rather exceed those of a turkey in size, and their colour is a yellowish brown, inclining to oil-green, with slight darker variations. Time of incubation four weeks. The young as soon as hatched follow the parent, but are incapable of flight for a long time. The editor of the last edition (1812) observes that the breed is now nearly extirpated, except on the downs of Wiltshire, where it is also very scarce.' The figure of the male bird given by Graves is said to have been drawn from one taken alive on Salisbury Plain in 1797. Montagu, in his Dictionary (1802), says, that in this locality it had be- Habits.-The extreme rapidity of their running, and the come very rare from the great price given for the eggs and unwillingness to rise on the wing exhibited by these birds, young to hatch and rear in confinement. In his Supple- have been the theme of most ornithologists. We have also ment (1813) he states that not one had been seen there for many accounts of their being coursed with dogs. The foltwo or three years previous. We are old enough to re-lowing is from Brookes: There are also bustards in member seeing one, and sometimes two, bustards as the France, which frequent large open plains, particularly near crowning ornaments of the magnificent Christmas larder Chalons, where, in the winter-time, there are great numat the Bush Inn, Bristol, in the reign of John Weeks, of bers of them seen together. There is always one placed as hospitable memory: and we have heard, too, a romantic a sentinel, at some distance from the flock, which gives story of the last of the Salisbury Plain bustards (a female) notice to the rest of any danger. They raise themselves coming into a farmer's barton, as if giving herself up. from the ground with great difficulty; for they run someGraves says that, in the spring of 1814, he saw five birds times a good way, beating their wings before they fly. on the extensive plains between Thetford and Brandon, in They take them with a hook baited with an apple or flesh. Norfolk, from which neighbourhood, in 1819, he received Sometimes fowlers shoot them as they lie concealed behind a single egg, which had been found in a large warren. some eminence, or on a load of straw; others take them In the autumn of 1819, he adds, a large male bird, which with greyhounds, which often catch them before they are had been surprised by a dog on Newmarket Heath, was able to rise. Selby, who has evidently had good opportusold in Leadenhall Market for five guineas; and in the nities of observation, thus writes in his Illustrations: Alsame year, he continues, a female was captured, under though in a state of confinement the bustard becomes similar circumstances, on one of the moors in Yorkshire. tolerably tame to those who are in the habit of attending When the mania for real British specimens of birds was it, yet it displays at all times considerable ferocity towards prevalent, the bustards suffered not a little. We know a strangers; and all attempts to continue the breed in that collector who, about the year 1816, had nine dead bustards state have been without success. With respect to its habits before him together: they came from Norfolk. Bustards in the wild state, it is so shy as seldom to be approached have been heard of within these last few years on North within gun-shot; invariably selecting the centre of the Stow Heath, near Culford, in the neighbourhood of Bury largest inclosure, where it walks slowly about, or stands St. Edmund's; and we are happy to be able to state that in with the head reposing backwards upon the bare part of its the locality from whence Selby obtained his specimen, the neck, and frequently with one leg drawn up. Upon being bustard is still in existence and most carefully preserved. disturbed, so far from running in preference to flight (as In this, the western part of Norfolk, a nest is generally has been often described), it rises upon the wing with great natched off every year. In the summer of 1834 a nest of facility, and flies with much strength and swiftness, usually three eggs was hatched in an open corn-field about half a to another haunt, which will sometimes be at the distance mile from High House; and, in December in that year, of six or seven miles. It has also been said, that in former VOL. VI.-I |