AVAL. 
NOTES ON THE BRITISH BIRDS OF EAST KENT 
WITH SUBSEQUENT ADDITIONS AND 
TABULATED LIST, 
BY 
G. DOWKER, Esq., F.G.S. 
Read May, 1885. 
FAMILY FALCONIDA.—(page 104.) 
The White Tailed Eagle—Haliaétus albicilla—has at various 
times been met with, generally young specimens, some three or 
four having been found at or near the same time; some of the older 
specimens met with have been preserved in the Canterbury 
Museum. The latest appearance of this bird in East Kent, was in 
1885; between this and the following year at least three specimens 
have been shot in the neighbourhood. The first of these specimens 
(now in the Canterbury Museum, where it occupies a very 
conspicuous place) was for some time before flying about our 
marshes, to the great excitement of the shooting fraternity of the 
neighbourhood; one gentleman who had spent many hours in 
attempting to get near the bird told me it had been seen attempting 
to carry off a sheep, and had torn the wool off its back. But it 
appears that it had only been feasting on the carcase of a dead sheep 
which had been drowned in the marshes. It was then reported to 
have taken some tame ducks, but there are even doubts about that ; 
after being seen about a week it was ignominiously shot at Minster, 
November, 1885. It wasa fine female bird, three feet in length, 
and eight feet in the stretch of its wings. It was for some time 
confidently stated that it was a Golden Eagle, till I pointed out 
the error. Soon after this another specimen was shot near Eastwell 
Park, and is now in the possession of the Duke of Edinburgh; this 
latter was a male and, like the other, a young bird. Sometime 
after the last bird had been shot another was seen in our marshes, 
and many attempts were made to shoot it, but it got away and I 
was pleased to think it might have escaped from its numerous 
enemies: but I find from a letter which appeared in ‘‘ Land and 
Water,” January 28, 1888, that a similar bird was shot by a 
gentleman of Dover, about the year 1885, and is now in the 
collection of Mr. Walter Bates, of Fulham. It appears highly 
probable that these were all young birds. About the same date a 
similar eagle was shot at Swaffham in Norfolk. I have recorded 
one specimen of the Sea Eagle, shot many years ago by the 
Rev. B. Austen, at Weatherless Hill, in the Minster Marshes. 
There are also three specimens of young birds, obtained nearly the 
same time, and set up by Mr. Craig for the Canterbury Museum, 
where they are preserved. Mr. John Bing, of Grove Ferry, tells me 
he remembers them having been shot near Chilham, and sent to the 
Canterbury Museum. Mr. Gordon, of Dover, remembers one being 
obtained from Godmersham Park. We have no evidence that these 
