Forms: 5–6 bustarde, 4– bustard; also, 6 bistarda, bistarde, bystarde, 7 bistard. [The form bustard in 15th c. appears to be exclusively English, and looks like a mixture of the two OF. forms bistarde and oustarde, both going back to L. avis tarda, the name given to the bird, according to Pliny, in Spain. This name, if purely Latin, would mean ‘slow bird,’ but ‘the application of the epithet is not understood’ (Prof. Newton), as the bird is remarkably swift on foot, and, though averse to flight, capable of great speed when compelled to take wing. Prof. Newton suggests that tarda may have been a sb.; perh. avis tarda is a mere etymologizing alteration of a non-Latin name. Hence Pg. abetarda, betarda, Sp. avutarda, It. ottarda, Pr. austarda. The Eng. form bistard was of later appearance, taken directly from Fr.]
1. A genus of birds (Otis) presenting affinities both to the Cursores and the Grallatores or Waders; remarkable for their great size and running powers. The Great Bustard (Otis tarda) is the largest European bird, and was formerly common in England, though now extinct, or found only as a rare visitant.
[1391. Test. Ebor. (1836), I. 155. Lego Elisotæ, uxori Ricardi Bustard.]
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk. (1868), 144. Pecok, Stork, Bustarde, & Shovellewre.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, D iij b. The symplest of theis will slee … a Bustarde.
1514. Fitzherb., Just. Peas (1538), 126 b. To forfayt for every egge of crane, or bustarde so distroyed … twenty pens.
c. 1520. L. Andrew, Noble Lyfe, L ij b, in Babees Bk. (1868), 218. The Bistarda is a birde as great as an egle.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., Def. Envie, 20. Nor lowly bustard dreads the distant rayes.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 174. Bistards or Bustards, so called for their slow Pace and heavy flying; or as the Scots term them, Gusestards; that is to say, Slow Geese.
1732. Fielding, Miser, III. iii. A bustard, which, I believe, may be bought for a guinea.
1794. Wordsw., Guilt & Sorr. The bustard … Forced hard against the wind a thick unwieldy flight.
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 57/1. Bustards have been heard of within the last few years in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmund’s.
1864. F. O. Morris, in Times, 19 Nov., 5/5. A specimen of the Great Bustard, long an extinct British bird, was picked up in the sea … off Burlington Quay about a week ago.
fig. 1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. vii. 56. Py what strange chances do we live in History … Milo by a bullock; Henry Darnley, an unfledged booby and bustard, by his limbs.
2. Applied to other related birds: in America to the Canada Goose, Bernicla Canadensis (Prof. Newton in Encycl. Brit.). Thick-kneed Bustard: the Stone Curlew (Œdicnemus crepitans).
3. Local var. BUZZARD, applied to large moths.
1886. M. G. Watkins, in Academy, 14 Aug., 101/3. There are some capital chapters on ‘bustard’ fishing (that is, fishing during the night with a large artificial moth).
