4 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



OSPREY, Pandion Halieatus. The Osprey is a 

 bird much better known in our county than either 

 of the two last-mentioned species ; nevertheless it 

 is still a very rare bird. An occasional specimen 

 has been killed at the Sandhill, Chargot, Combe 

 Sydenham, and other neighbouring ponds. There is 

 a very fine specimen in the museum of the Archaeo- 

 logical Society at Taunton, which was killed at 

 Chargot Lodge, in October, 1859. This is probably 

 a young bird of the year, or else one killed soon 

 after the moult, each feather of the back scapulars 

 and wing- coverts being narrowly but very distinctly 

 edged with yellowish white, which differs from the 

 description of Yarrell, quoted below. The pecu- 

 liarity above remarked is also noticed by Montagu* 

 in describing an Osprey killed in November : he says 

 that it has the "plumage much brighter, the upper 

 parts darker, being dusky brown, and all the feathers 

 on those parts, even the quills, are slightly tipped 

 with yellowish white." He also mentions another 

 killed in October, which is similar in appear- 

 ance, t This difference in plumage probably 

 arises, as suggested above, either from the speci- 

 mens so marked being young birds of the year, 



* Montagu's Dictionary, by Newman, p. 212. See also 

 ' The Zoologist' for 1863, p. 8841. 



( I have recently received one for my collection from 

 North Devon, shot in September : it is in similar plumage. 



