Great bustard Army training area. Here the lack of public access allows them the freedom needed as a large ground-nesting bird. It is classified by the IUCN as "vulnerable". The great bustard was classified with its scientific name in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, though the species was referred to as "avis tarda" in the much older writings of Pliny the Elder, and hence its names in English (from Old French "bistarda") and some other languages: "abetarda" (pt), "avetarda" (gl), "avutarda" (es). "Otis" is an Old Greek name for "bustard". The specific name, "tarda", is Latin for "slow" and "deliberate", which is apt
Little Birds 'little birds' of the title story refer both to the actual birds used by its exhibitionist protagonist to attract young schoolgirls to his attic, and (metaphorically) to the girls' flight when he finally exposes himself. In other stories, Nin calls into question the objectifying tendencies of the male gaze; both male and female complicity in masochism; and the pornographic genre itself through her subtle subversion. While writing her erotica, and organising that of her fellow writers such as George Barker, Nin referred to herself jokingly as the "madam of this snobbish literary house of prostitution" for a client who examined