1 04 FALCONID.i:. 



Animals ' (p. 52). No further particulars however respect- 

 ing it are known, nor does the entry state under what 

 circumstances the bird was observed, as Professor Duns, who 

 lately examined the original record, now in the library of the 

 University of Edinburgh, has kindly informed the Editor. 

 Details of the second example are more precise. In the 

 extracts from the Minute Book of the Linnean Society 

 printed at the end of the Fourteenth volume of its ' Transac- 

 tions ' (p. 583} under date "Nov. 4, 1823" there is a 

 notice of a communication by Dr. Sims mentioning, on the 

 authority of the late Mr. Fothergill of Carr End near Ark- 

 rigg 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 complete 

 corroboration of this story in the shape of the original note 

 in the handwriting of his father. This note states that 

 " On the 6th of 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, which will be found at the end of this article, 

 follows, and the note proceeds thus — the latter portion 

 having to all appearance been written subsequently : — " The 

 bird was kept to the 27th, and then made its escape, by the 

 door of the room being left open while shewing [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. 

 Sepr. 30th. 1805." The Editor has further been kindly 

 shewn by his obliging correspondent a letter addressed to his 

 father the following year by his nephew — the late Mr. Charles 

 Fothergill of York, an ardent naturalist, who says " I have also 



