138 BRITISH HIUDS. 



off to climb up my coat, and once or twice one of them, on 

 reaching my shoulder, gave my ear a sharp peck. After 

 watching their amusing movements for some time and 

 X^hotographing them, we replaced them in the nesting-hole. 



J. H. Owen. 



PROBABLE BREEDING OF THE LITTLE OWL 

 IN BERKSHIRE. 

 In the early summer of 1910, when walking round a gorse- 

 covert in the neighbourhood of Windsor, I flushed a Little Owl 

 {Athene noctua) out of a bare ditch, the bank of which was fuU 

 of rabbit-holes. It flew up into a tree and began calling, and 

 was answered by another bird. They both seemed very 

 anxious, and thinking they had j^oung close at hand, I 

 walked along the bottom of the ditch. Out of this I put up 

 four more. They could fly, but were obviously young birds. 

 I am sure they were hatched in the neighbourhood, but could 

 never find the nest. They were seen several times afterwards 

 near the same place. 



In 191 1 I was away in Egj^pt, but was told that another 

 family party had been seen. B. Van de Weyer. 



[Both in England and on the Continent the Little Owl not 

 infrequently nests in rabbit-burrows. — F.C.R.J.] 



EXTERMINATION OF THE SEA-EAGLE 

 IN IRELAND. 



In the Zoologist, 1911 (p. 346), Mr. R. Warren records the 

 disappearance of the Sea-Eagles {Haliattus alhicilla) from 

 their last breeding haunts in Ireland, on the cliffs of north 

 Mayo. They have been destroyed by the keepers of the 

 adjacent grouse-shootings, and at the present time the only 

 relics of their former presence are the old nests, which are 

 still visible at several places along the cliffs. Mr. \^arren 

 mentions one on the great cliff of Loughtmuriga, another on 

 Alt More, and three on the great cliff of Alt Redmond, besides 

 one on Spinks : the five last named being situated on the 

 range of cliffs between Porturlin and Portacloy. On July 1st, 

 1892, Mr. Warren was fortunate enough to see one of these 

 Eagles with a hare in its talons, pursued by an angry Peregrine, 

 and in all probability on its way to the nest. During the. 

 two following years the Eagles were reported to be present 

 .as usual on the cliffs, but no one seems to have seen an 

 occupied nest. In May, 1898, in company with Messrs. Ussher 

 and Howard Saunders, evidence of the presence of these birds 

 -was found in the shape of an eagle's feather, and the skeleton 



