Both this and the great bustard are excellent eating, and, we should imagine, would well repay the trouble of domestication: indeed, it seems surprising that we should suffer these fine birds to run wild, and be in danger of total extinction, which, if properly cultivated, might afford as excellent a repast as our own domestic poultry, or even as the turkey, (_vide_ TURKEY) for which we are indebted to distant countries.—_Bewick._ BUTT, _s._ The place on which the mark to be shot at is placed; a vessel; a barrel containing one hundred and twenty-six gallons of wine; the thick or lower joint of a fishing rod; the handle of a cue. The marks usually shot at by archers, for pastime, were “butts, prickes, and roavers.” The butt, we are told, was a level mark, and required a strong arrow, with a very broad feather; the pricke was a “mark of compass,” but certain in its distance; and to this mark strong swift arrows, of one flight, with a middling sized feather, were best suited; the roaver was a mark of uncertain lengths. It was, therefore, proper for the archer to have various kinds of arrows, of different weights, to be used according to the different changements made in the distance of the ground. The Cornish men are spoken of as good archers, who shoot their arrows to a great length; they are also, says Carew, “well skilled in near shooting, and in well aimed shooting: the butts made them perfect in the one, and the roaving in the other, for the prickes, the first corrupters of archery, through too much preciseness, were formerly scarcely known, and little practised.” Other marks are occasionally mentioned; as the standard, the target, hazel wands, rose garlands, and the popinjay, which, we are told, was an artificial parrot.—_Strutt._ BUTT, _v._ To strike with the head. BUTTER, _s._ An unctuous substance, made by agitating the cream of milk till the oil separates from the whey. BUTTERFLY, _s._ A beautiful insect. BUTTOCK, _s._ The rump, the part near the tail. BUTTON, _s._ Any knob or ball; the bud of a plant. BUZZARD, _s._ A degenerate or mean species of hawk. [Illustration]