SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 



349 



Hardrow Scarr was the Swallow-tailed Falcon or Falco 

 furcatus of Linnaeus." Unaccountable then as the fact may 

 be, it rests on the evidence of perfectly competent witnesses, 

 and there is accordingly no room for doubt in this case." 



The second specimen is in the collection of Mr. A. Clapham 

 of Scarborough, who stated that he purchased it from Mr. 

 Graham of York, to whom it had been sold by Mr. Jonathan 

 Taylor, a schoolmaster at Harome, near Helmsley. Mr. 

 Clapham made careful enquiries before purchasing this bird 

 and communicated with Mr. Taylor, the following being a 

 copy of that person's reply : — 



" Harum, 13th May 1872. In referring to my old book 

 of memoranda is the following : — 25th May 1859, Little George 

 (the name by which this keeper was always known at Dun- 

 combe Park), brought me to-day a Swallow-tailed Kite, shot 

 by himself in the Quarry Bank, near Helmsley, on the estate 

 of the Earl of Feversham. — [Signed] Jonathan Taylor." 

 Mr. Clapham had also other letters from Mr. Taylor bearing 

 out his statements, and in one he greatly regrets having sold 

 the bird to Mr. Graham for a few shillings, not knowing 

 its value at that time. Confirmatory evidence bearing out 

 this statement was received from a totally independent source. 

 Mr. Thomas Stephenson of Whitby, who kindly interested 

 himself in procuring information relating to north-eastern 

 Yorkshire, reported that Wm. Lister and his brother observed 

 about this same year a Swallow-tailed Kite at Glaisdale. 

 Mr. Lister was an ornithologist and had no hesitation as to 

 the identification of the bird, which he thus described : " black 

 and white and the tail much more forked than that of the 

 common Kite," which he knows well. 



The third example of this rare bird attributed to Yorkshire 

 is in the fine collection of Mr. Alfred Beaumont of Huddersfield, 

 and is supposed to have been obtained in Bolton Woods some 

 forty or fifty years ago. For many years it formed part of 

 the collection of a Brighouse or Halifax gentleman, on whose 

 death the collection came under the hammer, when the bird 

 passed into the possession of its present owner, the price 

 paid for it being £11. This is all the information obtainable, 



