( 250 ) 



Report on the OrnifhoJngi/ of Benriclmhire, and district within the limits of 

 the Benvie/ishire JVutara'ists^ C/ah. By P. J. Sklby, Esq. of 

 Twizell-Honse. 



A DISTRICT so varied as B(^rwicksliiro, and those portions of North. 

 Durham and Northumlxndand included within the limits of our Club, 

 "where a rich productive country, celebrated for the excellence of its 

 agriculture, is intersected by numerous denes and gills, each containing 

 or aifording a channel to a clear and limpid stream of less or greater 

 magnitude, and having their steep sid^^s sometimes fringed with wood 

 of ancient or more recent date, at others, clothed with the rich and 

 golden blossoms of the whin and broom, with tangled copse of briar, 

 black-thorn, and sweetly-scented May ; where extensive woods surround 

 and beautify the numerous seats dispersed throughout its whole extent, 

 and whose holms and liaughs are intersected by fair Tweed, the Till, 

 and the Eye; whose upland districts are of that wild character which 

 suits the habits of that truly British species, the Red Grrouse, and other 

 alpine birds ; whose seaward line, from Berwick to its northernmost 

 extent, is bounded l\y bold precipitous cliffs, which reach their highest 

 altitude at the beetling and far-famed promontory of >^t Abb's Head, 

 affording a secure and appropriate breeding retreat to many of our 

 aquatic summer visitants, while the low and slaky shore that extends 

 from Berwick Bay to Fenham Flats, becomes the resort of our aquatic 

 winter visitants ; — may naturally be expected to present a numerous 

 ornithological list, and to contain a large proportion of the British 

 birds ; and this we think must be allowed, the annexed list exhibiting 

 a return of nearly two-thirds of the birds recorded as British. 



Upon analyzing the contents of the list, and commencing with the 

 Raptorial Order, we hnd twelve species belonging to tlie Falconidre, 

 six of which are residents, the remainder coming under the denomina- 

 tion of occasional visitants : of the latter, several instances of the 

 cinereous or great sea-eagle {Ifalia(''f/(.s alhiciUa) have occurred within 

 our precincts. All the examples of this kind that I have seen and 

 examined have been in immature plumage ; a circumstance, however, 

 not at all remarkable, as the adults, when once paired, rarely leave 

 the immediate vicinity of the eyry they have selected, and the young, 

 after quitting the nest, are always driven from the district in which 

 they have been bred by the parent birds. The frequent appearance 

 of this species in lowland districts, as compared with that of the 

 golden eagle {Aqnila Chrysaetos), may be attributed to its maritime 

 and coasting habits, the latter affecting the mountainous island 

 districts, from which it rarely strays. Of the osprey {Pmidion haliaHus), 



