THE OSPREY. 



149 



Sussex can take the prize, according;- td the 

 •West Sussex Gazette', with one of the h(iary 

 denizens of the keep of Arundel Castle, called 

 "Lord Thurlow". This was the name of an 

 Eag-le-Owl. the subject of some amusin;^ stories. 

 which expired in 185') at the a.ye of 100, leaving- 

 seven birds in captivity in the "keep", one of 

 which was 63. From inquiries made at the 

 Castle I believe them to. have been the European 

 Eagle-Owl. Bubo niaximiis, but on this head 

 see Borrer's 'Birds of Sussex', p. xvii. With 

 what degree of precision their ages were re- 

 corded it is difficult to say; but the present 

 Duke contirnied the undoubted fact of their 

 being- very old, and concerning" Mr. Meade- 

 Waldo's pair there need be no question. 



ACCIPITKF.S. 



Besides the 27 cases to be presently enumer- 

 ated, several of which it will be seen from the 

 list are sufficiently remarkable, there are stories 

 with much ci'edibility about them of still older 

 Accipilri's, and to these I would briefly direct 

 attention. To begin with. Brehni. in his 'Life 

 of Animals' (1878). gives us an Aqiiila i/irysac- 

 tiis nearly 80. which had died in captivity at 

 Schoenbrun. At this place al.so a white-headed 

 Vulture (C;yps fulviis?) died in 1824, at the 

 reputed age of 118 (Knauer, Der Naturhis- 

 toriker).' 



According- to Maitland's 'History of London' 

 (17.%). there was in 17,^4. in the Tower of 

 London menagerie, "a Golden Eagle which has 

 been kept there upwai'ds of ninety years, and 

 several other Eagles". 



The 'Berlin Post" (as quoted by the 'Times' of 

 September 8, 1883, reprinted Zoologist, vii. p. 

 422) relates a story of an Imperial Eagle (qu , /. 

 imficrialis or A. adalhcrtif) taken that year in 

 Brandenburg ringed with a plate on which was 

 engraved "H. Ks. (j. K.," and underneath 

 "Eperjes." and on the other side "10. 'i. 1827." 

 which makes the bird .5() years old. Eperjes is 

 in I'pper Hung-ary. and in the opinion of Dr. J. 

 von Madanisz the first two letters stand for the 

 owner's name. 



Long ago there was at Vienna a reputed 

 Eagle of 104, which has done duty in many 

 books without reference to the original passag:e 

 recording it. It will be found in John G. 

 Key.sler's 'Travels through Germany' (i. p. 70), 

 where the Eag-le is affirmed to have lived in con- 

 finement from 1015 to 1710. Keysler's work was 

 first published in Germany, and the history of 

 this Eagle seems to have been told him at 

 Munich in 1820. 



In tile 'Gentleman's Mag-azine' for 1703. p. 

 181. it is related how a Hawk, probably Faico 

 pi)cf;ri>iii.<i, had been found at the Cape of Good 

 Hope and brought from thence by one of the 

 India ships, having on its neck a good collar 

 thus engraved: — "This goodlie Hawk doth 

 belong to his Most Excellent Majestic James, 

 King of Eng-land. A. n. l(>lo". The anecdote 

 is barely credible, for a Hawk with a ring"- round 

 its neck — a primitive method (Norw. N. Tr. iii. 

 p. 88) — is not very likely to have lived 180 years 

 or to have flown (>500 miles. Another Falcon is 

 said to have attained 162 (Knauer, 'Der Natur- 



historiker)'. but such statements require to be 

 attested. 



Pei.kc.\nid.h. 



Willug-hby. on the authority of Schaad. tells 

 the readers of a Pelican fif 40 in the Duke of 

 Bavaria's court, while Aldrovandus tells of 

 another at Mechlin, in Brabant, known to be SO, 

 and believed to be 80 ('Ornitholog-ia." xix. p. 

 22.) Turner also tells of one of 50. perhaps the 

 same (Hist. Avium). Pelicans have been known 

 to live a long'' time in various zoological gardens, 

 even where they have no .sheet of water to sail 

 about on. We learn, for in.stance, that "of a 

 great number of Pelicans kept in the menagerie 

 at Versailles none died in the space of 12 years" 

 (Mem. de I'Acad. des Sci.). a record which Pclc- 

 itJitiis oiorro/a/iis, P. coHSpicillaliis. and P. 

 irt'spiis. the property of the Zoological Society 

 of London, can easily beat, under the guardian- 

 ship of their watchful keeper, T. Church. 



At Rotterdam there is a Pelican of 41 still 

 living (fide Dr. Biittikofer). 



But enough has been said to show the consid- 

 erable duration of life of the Pilecanidtr. 



Akdeid.-i;. 



Herons have been often ringed by hawking 

 clubs and afterwards retaken, aft'ording- well 

 attested cases of long'-evity in a wild st;ite and 

 of migratorv wanderings as well (cf. 'Birds of 

 Norfolk,' ii.' p. 130; 'Birds of Suffolk.' p. 1.58). 

 It will be sufficient to g'ive the particulars of the 

 two oldest only. In the 'Annual Register' for 

 1767, under date July 7th, readers are informed 

 that "As the Prince Stadtholder [of Holland] 

 was taking the diversion of hawking-, he caug'-ht 

 a Heron with a brass inscription round its legs, 

 setting- forth that it had been taken and released 

 by the Elector of Cologne in the year 1737." /. e. 

 a Heron of 30 years of age. But nine years 

 before that, viz., in the spring of 1728. a Heron 

 was taken in Bavaria which had been ringed 60 

 years before by Duke Ferdinand the Elector, ac- 

 cording; to Keysler's 'Travels throug''h Germany,' 

 i. p. 70. As Keysler says he was at Starren- 

 berg Palace the year following, it was no doubt 

 there that he got the particulars first-hand. The 

 Crane has lived to be 40. and my father has re- 

 corded a Black Stork of 30. 



Anserks. 



Tame Geese are long-lived and their ages ea.sy 

 to verify, and by inference wild (ieese would be 

 long-lived. Two centuries ago Francis Wil- 

 lughby had the story of a domestic Goose which 

 was 8(1, and was then killed for itsdestructiveness 

 tlioug-h yet sound and lusty, from a friend who 

 is spoken of in two places as "of very good 

 credit" and "undoubted fidelity" ('Ornithology,' 

 pp. 14. 358). There is really no reason whatever 

 to question it, especially as Bufl'on considers 

 that a Goose once reached 100, and Pennant was 

 equally aware of what he terms a vast long^evity. 

 There was a Goose at the Saracen's Head Inn 

 at Paislev. in Renfrew. N. B., computed to be 

 nearly lo'o (R. Lee). 



Mute Swans have for centuries had the credit 

 of turning into 'Methuselahs.' even to the ex- 

 tent of 300 years (Aldrovandus), and Norfolk 



