4 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



is therefore an interesting fact. With reference to 

 the Golden Eagle above mentioned, I am informed 

 by G. M. Edmonds, Esq., of Oundle, in a letter dated 

 February 29th, 1876, as follows : " Riding through 

 Elton Park, as near as I can recollect twenty years 

 since, I saw at 9 o'clock A.M. unmistakably an Eagle 

 flying slowly about 100 yards from me ; 1 told some 



of my friends here A few days after this I 



saw in the Stamford paper that a Golden Eagle had 

 been shot by Mr. Nevile's keeper at Walcot Park, 

 near Barnack." I have no doubt that this was the 

 same bird, and attach no importance to the discrepancy 

 of dates, as Mr. Edmonds only wrote from recollection. 

 I have received other notices of the occurrence of 

 this species in Northamptonshire, but do not consider 

 them sufficiently definite or supported by evidence to 

 be worthy of particular record. 



I am glad to say that the Golden Eagle still breeds 

 in many parts of the Highlands of Scotland, and in 

 several localities is protected by the owners and 

 lessees of deer-forests and grouse-shootings. I had 

 frequent opportunities of observing the habits of this 

 species during my nine years' tenancy of a wild dis- 

 trict in Inverness-shire, in which they regularly nested. 

 I never saw them capture or even pursue a bird of 

 any sort, and have the best of reasons for believing 

 that their principal food in Scotland consists of the 

 Blue Hare and Rabbit. 



The specimen referred to at the commencement of 

 this article was most obligingly presented to me by 

 Mr. Ralph Nevile in February 1891. It is, in my 

 opinion, in the plumage of the second year. Mr. J. 

 Cullingford, of Durham, to whom I sent this bird for 

 re-mounting, assured me that the flesh had not been 



