HALLflETUS ALBICILLA. 49 



smaller and of rather coarser texture than those of the other kind. 

 The one Mr. Hewitson figures [§ 67] is somewhat above the average 

 size. I have not known an egg with any true colour upon it which 

 I could ascertain beyond doubt to have been laid by this bird'. 

 Two eggs which I took myself are uniformly stained^ but not^ I think, 

 with proper colouring matter. Eggs of a kind of Penguin are brought 

 home by the guano vessels, and show green to the light, and, being 

 aljout the right size and shape, are frequently called White-tailed 

 Eagles'. 



The young of this species are wanderers on the face of the earth. 

 In most winters, birds of the first year are killed in England ; but it 

 has long ceased to breed with us. It formerly built in Whinfield 

 Park, in Westmoreland, where the nests were protected by the then 

 Countess of Pembroke, as Willughby tells us [Ornithol. 1676, p. 17] ; 

 and about the year 1692, either this or the Golden Eagle had an eyrie 

 upon " Willow Cragg," in the parish of Bampton, in the same county 

 [_' Correspondence of John Ray,' edited by Dr. Lankester for the Ray 

 Society, 1848, p. 257] . About a century later. Dr. Heysham informed 

 Dr. Latham [Gen. Syn., Supp. 1, p. 11] of a nest near Keswick in 

 Cumberland; and the nest mentioned by Dr. Moore [Mag. Nat. Hist, 

 ser. 2, vol. i. p. 114], on Dewerstone Rock, near Plymouth, to which 

 allusion has before been made, probably belonged to this bird. In 

 Ireland there are a good many spots where it still maintains its posi- 

 tion, as appears from Mr. Thompson's work [B. Ireland, vol. i. 

 pp. 14-29] ; and that gentleman says that, in July 1835, he saw two 

 Eagles, of which he could not determine the species, in the [English] 

 lake-district, but which he considers were probably breeding in that 

 quarter. In Scotland it has been rapidly retiring. It used to build 

 on the Bass Rock, and long ago had two breeding-places in Dumfries- 

 shire [Mag, Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vol. i. pp. 119 & 444], and even near 

 Glasgow ; but now its stations are almost confined to the north and 

 west, and the islands. Every Deer-stalker knows to whose share is 

 allotted the " gralloch " of a Stag ; and too many Highland game- 

 keepers have learned how they can easily catch either kind of Eagle. 

 It is therefore a melancholy reflection that they can scarcely exist 

 much longer. The White-tailed Eagle, in its sea-girt fortresses, will 



^ [Mr. Hewitson has twice figured a specimen as that of the White-tailed Eagle, 

 upon which are some slight markings of reddish yellow (Brit. Ool. pi. xlv., and 

 Eggs B. B. ed. 1, pi. ii. fig. 2). I believe it is from Mr. J. Hancock's collection, 

 and that nothing more is known of its history than that it came from Hoy in the 

 Orkneys, an island on which the Golden Eagle used to, and perhaps may still, 

 breed. — Ed.] 



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