4 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
Osprey, Pandion Haliéetus. The Osprey is a 
bird much better known in our county than either 
of the two last-mentioned species; nevertheless it 
is still a very rare bird. An occasional specimen 
has been killed at the Sandhill, Chargot, Combe 
Sydenham, and other neighbouring ponds. There is 
a very fine specimen in the museum of the Archxo- 
logical Society at Taunton, which was killed at 
Chargot Lodge, in October, 1859. This is probably 
a young bird of the year, or else one killed soon 
after the moult, each feather of the back scapulars - 
and wing-coverts being narrowly but very distinctly 
edged with yellowish white, which differs from the 
description of Yarrell, quoted below. The pecu- 
harity above remarked is also noticed by Montagu* 
in describing an Osprey killed in November: he says 
that it has the “plumage much brighter, the upper 
parts darker, being dusky brown, and all the feathers 
on those parts, even the quills, are slightly tipped 
with yellowish white.” He also mentions another 
killed in October, which is similar in appear- 
ance.| This difference in plumage _ probably 
arises, as sugvested above, either from the speci- 
mens so marked being young birds of the year, 
* Montagu’s Dictionary, by Newman, p. 212. See also 
‘The Zoologist’ for 1863, p. 8841. 
+ I have recently received one for my collection from 
North Devon, shot in September: it is in similar plumage. 
