RARE AND ACCIDENTAL VISITORS. 



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ORDER L R A P T O R E S. 

 Family FALCONID^E. 



. GOLDEN EAGLE (Aquila chrysaetos). The Golden 

 Eagle seldom wanders far from its mountain home, 

 and is consequently one of the rarest visitors to Buck- 

 inghamshire and Berkshire. 



In 1847 an Eagle of this species was shot by a 

 keeper at Littlecot, the seat of Mr. Popham, near 

 Hungerford, in Berkshire : ' It had glutted itself on a 

 dead deer, and was unable to fly away upon the 

 approach of the keeper, who fired six times before 

 he killed it.'* Mr. Buckland, in his * Curiosities of 

 Natural History/ states that ' Three or four years 

 ago a Golden Eagle was shot in the forest at Windsor, 

 and presented by His Royal Highness the Prince 

 Consort to Eton College;' but it is probable that 

 Mr. Buckland refers to a fine White-tailed Eagle 

 which was shot in 1851, and presented to the College 

 by the late Prince. 



* Morris's ' British Birds,' vol. i. 



