6 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



followers, arrived upon the scene of action at this 

 moment, some gentlemen lent whip-lashes to secure 

 the Eagle, and suggested to its captor that it had 

 probably escaped from my menagerie, and that he 

 had better bring it to me. I was abroad at the time, 

 no bird was missing from my collection, but the 

 person in charge gladly accepted this addition there- 

 unto, set its thigh, which was broken, and when I 

 came home in the following month of August I found 

 the bird in good condition, but subject to occasional 

 fits of vertigo. On inquiry I found that one of my 

 gamekeepers had fired at an Eagle flying over Lilford 

 Wood two days before this bird was caught, and I 

 have no doubt that, besides breaking its thigh, a 

 pellet of shot had lodged somewhere in the head and 

 caused these fits, from which the bird never entirely 

 recovered, and died in 1879. 



On February 27, 1891, I heard from Mr. II. Field, 

 of Kettering, that a Sea-Eagle had been shot at 

 Oakley on the 24th, and sent to him for preservation 

 on the 25th. I at once sent a competent person to 

 Kettering, and obtained the following details : 

 The Eagle was shot by a man in the employment of 

 Mr. Northen, tenant of Oakley Lodge, who had 

 noticed it about all the afternoon of 24th. " Owing 

 to the dense fog that prevailed it did not go to any 

 distance, so he sent one of his men across the field 

 gently, as the bird could see him, and this man crept 

 up close to it under the hedge, so shot it through the 

 neck, and broke one wing." Mr. Field informed me 

 that this bird was a female, and measured 3 ft. 4 in. in 

 total length, 8 ft. in expanse of wings, and weighed 

 about 8 Ibs. It was eventually obtained for preserva- 

 tion by Sir R. de Capell Brooke, the owner of the farm 



