42 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



tormentors, and just as the talons of each foot were 

 respectively lodged in the ribs and throat of the 

 howling cur, and when another moment would 

 have seen one of his eyes cleverly scooped out, a 

 blow on the back of the head laid the poor eagle 



-" stretched upon the plain, 



No more through rolling clouds to soar again." 



NOTE. While these pages are passing through the 

 press, I have received information from Sir Charles 

 Taylor that a large eagle, lately observed in his neighbour- 

 hood, had been subsequently trapped in one of the great 

 woods on the Cowdray estate. Being naturally anxious to 

 examine, or perchance obtain a specimen of an eagle found 

 so near me, I was just preparing to start in quest of it, 

 when Lord Egmont kindly anticipated my wishes by send- 

 ing it to me. It proved' to be a male cinereous or sea 

 eagle, in immature, but uninjured plumage. I have ascer- 

 tained that the last chapter in his biography was as fol- 

 lows : The bird had for three weeks frequented the wood- 

 ed district in that picturesque portion of the weald which 

 lies between Hollycombe and Henley Hill, about twenty 

 miles from the coast, and was evidently hitherto indebted 

 for his escape rather to the impracticable nature of his 

 haunts than to any cunning or vigilance of his own. He 

 had been seen several times near some old pollard oak trees, 

 among which, it was afterwards ascertained, he had roosted. 

 Having, at length, imprudently ventured to make a foray 



