288 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



remarkably fine and powerful bird. On being shot Mr. 

 Peake forced from its throat nearly 2 lbs. of large eels, 

 and it is supposed that it gorged itself so much that it 

 was careless of its safety, having been killed with a 

 common charge of Ko. 4 shot." In the Zoologist, 1849, 

 Mr. J. W. Hulke, records that "on February 24, 1849, 

 a large Eagle was seen hovering over the lower sand- 

 hills at Deal. From the description given by a person 

 who lives there, it was most probably the AVhite-tailed 

 Eagle." 



In the British Museum there is a young male which 

 was obtained in Kent, and presented by Colonel Mon- 

 tagu. Dr. F. Plomley records a White-tailed Eagle 

 in Kent, in the Zoologist, January 16, 1850. The Eev. 

 C. H. Fielding states that one was obtained in Sheppey, 

 but this is under the name of the Golden Eagle ; and 

 another at High Halstow, near Eochester, which he 

 places under Erne or Sea-Eagle. Mr. W. Prentis says : 

 "A pair of Sea Eagles paid my district a visit in the 

 month of November, 1879 ; the first was a fine large 

 Eagle in mottled plumage and with a whitish tail. 

 Another Eagle was soon afterwards seen flying 150 yards 

 high over the district." 



Mr. G. Dowker, in his Birds of East Kent, 1889, gives 

 a summary of these birds in that part of the county : 

 viz. : One Sea-Eagle shot many years ago by the Eev. 

 B. Austen, at Weatherless Hill, in the Minster marshes. 

 Three obtained at nearly the same time, now in the 

 Canterbury Museum, which Mr. John Bing, of Grove 

 Ferry, tells me he remembers having been shot near 

 Chilham. The late Mr. C. Gordon, of Dover, remembers 

 one obtained at Godmersham Park. The latest appear- 

 ance of this bird in Kent was in 1885 ; between that. 



