348 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Three specimens of this wanderer from the " Far West " 

 are reported to have visited our county. One of these has 

 passed into history, and the following are the particulars 

 of it from Professor Newton's admirable edition of Yarrell's 

 " British Birds " :— 



" In the extracts from the Minute Book of the Linnean 

 Society printed at the end of the Fourteenth Volume of its 

 ' Transactions ' (p. 583), under date " 4th November 1823,' 

 there is a notice of a communication by Dr. Sims mentioning, 

 on the authority of the late Mr. Fothergill of Carr End, near 

 Arkrigg [Askrigg] in Yorkshire, the occurrence of a Swallow- 

 tailed Kite near Hawes in Wensleydale in that county. The 

 Editor has been favoured by a son of the gentleman last 

 named — Mr. William Fothergill of Darlington, with a com- 

 plete corroboration of this story in the shape of the original 

 note in the handwriting of his father. This note states that 

 " on the 6th September 1805, during a tremendous thunder- 

 storm a bird, of which a correct description follows, was 

 observed flying about in Shaw Gill, near Simonstone, and 

 alighting upon a tree was knocked down by a stick thrown 

 at it, which however did not prove fatal, as I saw it alive 

 and had an opportunity of carefully examining it four days 

 after it was taken." A very accurate description of the 

 specimen .... follows, and the note proceeds thus — the 

 latter portion having to all appearance been written subse- 

 quently : — " The bird was kept to the 27th, and then made 

 its escape, by the door of the room being left open while 

 showing [it] to some company. At first it arose high in the 

 air, but being violently attacked by a party of Rooks, it 

 alighted in the tree in which it was first taken. When its 

 keeper approached, it took a lofty flight towards the south, 

 as far as the eye could follow, and has not since been heard 

 of. — [Signed] W. Fothergill. 30th September 1805." The 

 Editor has further been kindly shown by his obliging cor- 

 respondent a letter addressed to his father the following 

 year by his nephew, the late Charles Fothergill of York, an 

 ardent naturalist, who says, " I have also proved, what 

 I expected would be the case, that the Falco taken at 



