76 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



have also examined a Sea Eagle presented to the 

 Exeter Museum by Mr. H. Michelmore ; this 

 specimen is said to have been obtained in the 

 county. 



SPARROW RAWK.—Acci]jiter nisns (Linn). 



A RESIDENT species, fairly plentiful in well wooded 

 districts, but becoming scarce as the moorlands are 

 api^roached. As an instance of the audacity of this 

 species may be cited Gatcombe's observation that 

 in September 1884, a Sparrow Hawk was caught in 

 the middle of Plymouth, having dashed at a caged 

 Goldfinch (Zool. 1885. p. 23). Varieties of the 

 Sparrow Hawk are rare ; an albino example, shot 

 at Castle HiH, North Devon, June 28th, 1849, is 

 preserved in the Exeter Museum, 



KITE — Milvus ictimis, Savigny. 



A RARE visitant, The Rev. M. A. Mathew writes, 

 that he has proof of the Kite having nested quite 

 receyithj in Devonshire, but even at the beginning of 

 the century it was a rare bird in the South of the 

 County ; Montagu only met with it once in twelve 

 years' experience. In recording a specimen of the 

 Kite kiUed in Cornwall in 1870, the late Mr. Rodd 

 remarked : '' I have not heard of a specimen of this 

 beautiful bird occurring anywhere in the West of 

 England for the last fifty years, although I have a 

 vague recollection of the species having (in my 

 school-boy days, at Buckfastleigh near Ashburton, 



