BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



1. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. Haliceetus albicilla, 

 Linnaeus. French, " Aigle pygarque," " Pygarque 

 ordinaire." The White-tailed Eagle is an occasional 

 but by no means uncommon visitant to all the 

 Islands. I have seen specimens from Alderney, 

 Guernsey, and Herm, and have heard of its having 

 been killed in Sark more than once. It usually 

 occurs in the autumn, and, as a rule, has a very 

 short lease of life after its arrival in the Islands, 

 which is not to be wondered at, as it is considered, 

 and no doubt is, mischievous both to sheep and 

 poultry; and in so thickly populated a country, 

 where everyone carries a gun, a large bird like the 

 White-tailed Eagle can hardly escape notice and 

 consequent destruction for any length of time. It 

 might, however, if unmolested, occasionally remain 

 throughout the winter, and probably sometimes 

 wanders to the Islands at that time, as Mr. Harvie 

 Brown records (' Zoologist ' for 1869, p. 1591) one 

 as having been killed, poisoned by strychnine, in 

 Herm in the month of January. This was, no 



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