BIRDS 



of an adult male which was shot and winged 

 at Swallowfield on October 2, 1899, kept 

 alive till March, 1900, when it died, and is 

 now preserved in the Reading Museum. 



101. Hen-Harrier. Circus cyaneus (Linn.). 

 This is another hawk which is now only a 



rare visitor not very hospitably received. One 

 was trapped in the Royal Forest at Windsor 

 in 1855 ; another, a female, shot in the same 

 forest in 1859 or X 86o (Birds of Berks and 

 Bucks, p. 4). Mr. Herbert records one in his 

 collection trapped near Faringdon (Newbury 

 District Field Club, 1870-1, p. 95); and a 

 young bird shot near Newbury in 1885 was 

 in Dr. Palmer's possession. Mr. G. T. Phillips 

 informs me (in lit.) of the following occurrences 

 of this bird which have come under his notice : 

 One shot in Nash Grove near Wokingham in 

 1 86-, and now in the possession of Mrs. Lane 

 of that town ; a pair observed at Earley by 

 Mr. W. Holland in the spring of 1887 ; and 

 a pair flushed from a piece of ground covered 

 with heather and young Scotch fir in Septem- 

 ber, 1886, near Nine-Mile Ride. 



102. Buzzard. Buteo vulgaris, Leach. 



This bird once bred in the wooded parts of 

 Berkshire, and was resident, for writing in 1 8 1 4 

 Dr. Lamb speaks of it as 'very common' 

 ('Ornith. Bercheria'). By the 'sixties' it 

 must have become rare, as Clark Kennedy 

 (Birds of Berks and Bucks, p. 164-5) on ty 

 mentions three instances of its capture that 

 came under his notice : a pair killed by a 

 keeper in Windsor Great Park in the summer 

 of 1857, ar >d a fine male shot in a wood near 

 Sunninghill in 1866. In the Zoologist, 1876, 

 p. 4829, Mr. A. H. Cocks mentions one 

 caught near Wantage in June, 1853, which 

 was kept alive for some time. Mr. Herbert 

 mentions one in his collection killed near 

 Newbury, 1 866 (Newbury District Field Club, 

 1870-1, p. 95) ; another was shot at Buckle- 

 bury in 1880, which was seen in the flesh 

 by Mr. H. M. Wallis ; and Lord Abingdon 

 tells me (in lit.) one was trapped at Wytham 

 Abbey last year, 1901. 



103. Rough-legged Buzzard. Buteo lagopus 



(Gmelin). 



A rare winter visitor. C. E. Stubbs saw 

 one that had been killed at Culham Court 

 many years ago ; another was shot at Ham 

 Spray on December 7, 1876, now in the 

 possession of Mr. Couling of that village. 

 Mr. Wallis tells me that on October 25, 

 1895, at 9 a.m., a very white undersided 

 bird passed over Reading low down going 

 east, and I have seen one a very short distance 

 over our boundary in Bucks. 



[Golden Eagle. Aquila cbrysaftus (Linn.). 



Dr. Bowdler Sharpe was told by Mr. Briggs 

 of a golden eagle trapped at Billingbear ; it 

 was seen previously by that keen observer 

 (Birds of Berks and Bucks, p. 155). Another 

 is said to have been killed at Shottesbrook in 

 1794 ('Ornith. Bercheria') ; but a specimen, 

 often cited as a ' golden ' eagle, from Littlecote 

 near Hungerford, was really an immature 

 white-tailed eagle in the tawny-brown plum- 

 age which has led to so many erroneous identifi- 

 cations. Nearly all the so-called 'golden' 

 eagles taken in the south or centre of England 

 have turned out to be simply young white- 

 tails, and at this distance of time it is not 

 possible to prove the identity of the specimens 

 quoted.] 



104. White-tailed Eagle. Haliaftus albicilla 



(Linn.). 



This migratory eagle has been obtained on 

 several occasions. The first specimen of 

 which we have record was shot on Wan- 

 tage Downs in 1793 ('Ornith. Bercheria'). 

 A fine specimen is preserved in the Eton 

 Museum which was killed near Windsor 

 on February 3, 1851, and presented by 

 H.R.H. the Prince Consort on December 

 12, 1856. Another was shot in Windsor 

 Park, and is mentioned by Buckland (Curi- 

 osities of Nat. Hist. i. 99) ; a fourth, in 

 immature plumage, was shot by one of the 

 royal keepers in Windsor Great Park during 

 the summer of 1865; and about the same 

 time another was wounded in the park and 

 kept alive by Mr. Cole at Sandpit Gate (Birds 

 of Berks and Bucks, p. 155-8). In 1887 another 

 was shot at Rapley Lake, Bagshot, by one of 

 the keepers, and is or was in the collection of 

 Mr. Hart of Christchurch, Hants (Long in lit. 

 to Bucknill). 



[Goshawk. Astur palumbarius (Linn.). 



One was shot at Highclere by Mr. Maskell, 

 a few years prior to 1886 (Palmer, ' Birds of 

 Newbury and District"). Highclere is just 

 over our boundary.] 



105. Sparrow-Hawk. Accipiter nisus (Linn.). 

 Fairly common and resident, breeding in the 



wooded districts, where it shows distinct par- 

 tiality for larch trees. Although these birds 

 hold the worst of records from a game-pre- 

 server's point of view, yet they are not all bad. 

 A pair nested and reared their young within 

 300 yards of our pheasant field, flying over 

 it daily, and often taking young sparrows and 

 other small birds, but never once did they 

 touch a pheasant, consequently they were 

 not destroyed. 



153 



20 



