AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 6 



near neighbour the late Mr. George E. Hunt, of 

 Wadenhoe House, who was a keen and accurate 

 observer, and to him I am indebted for a great deal 

 of information on the birds of our immediate vicinity. 

 I am glad to think that the mania for the indiscrimi- 

 nate slaughter of every so-called rare bird is decidedly 

 on the decrease, and that in many parts of England 

 the taste for ornithological observation is as decidedly 

 on the increase. With the southern division of 

 Northamptonshire I have very little acquaintance, 

 and my observations must be taken as relating 

 (chiefly) to the northern division and the adjacent 

 portion of Huntingdonshire. 



1. GOLDEN EAGLE. 



Aquila clirijsaehis. 



A very fine specimen of this Eagle was shot by one 

 John Barratt in the High Woods between Burghley 

 House and Walcot, the seat of R. Nevile, Esq., in 

 the month of October 1849, and preserved at the 

 latter named place, where I saw it in 1859. I have 

 no record as to the sex of this bird. The great 

 majority of Eagles recorded as Golden in county 

 newspapers and elsewhere, as occurring from time to 

 time in various parts of England, have, on examina- 

 tion, proved to belong to the other indigenous British 

 species of Eagle, viz. Haliaetus nUicilla, the W'hite- 

 tailed or Sea-Eagle, and the occurrence of a genuine 

 Golden Eagle so far from its present breeding-haunts 



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