PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 43 



and therefore now very nearly forty years of age. It is 

 only of late that she has shown any signs of old age, 

 in a certain lack of activity that causes her to remain 

 much upon the ground instead of perching ; but she is 

 still in very fine plumage, and it would, I think, be 

 extremely dangerous for a stranger to venture into her 

 compartment. This species of eagle has been so persecuted 

 and killed down in its former breeding-haunts in Scotland 

 and Ireland that I may say with certainty that not more 

 than three pairs, at the outside, now nest in the United 

 Kingdom. A few stragglers visit our country irregularly 

 on passage, probably from Norway, and meet with no 

 mercy, being, with few exceptions, shot or trapped at once, 

 and almost invariably recorded in the newspapers as 

 * magnificent specimens of the golden eagle.' This golden 

 eagle is far more common in Scotland than the sea eagle, 

 but fortunately seldom travels to any very considerable 

 distance from its mountain haunts. Northamptonshire is 

 one of the few English counties that can lay claim to an 

 occurrence of the golden eagle within its limits, whilst 

 nearly every English county is guilty of the blood of the 

 sea eagle. A very fine immature female of this latter 

 species was killed at Oakley, near Kettering, in February 

 1 891, and I am acquainted with several other occurrences 

 in Northamptonshire. In my opinion there is no sense 

 or reason in the destruction of an eagle in our country 

 but so long as 'British bird-collectors offer long prices for 

 specimens slaughtered within the limits of the four seas, 



