14 FALCONHXE, 



grounds, Mr. Glennon, when engaged in mineralogical ob- 

 servations in Achill, could almost tell the hour when an adult 

 sea eagle would sweep round the base of the cliff', where he 

 was engaged in search of ore. Its appearance was singularly 

 fine ; the immense sweep of wing, the snow-white colour ol 

 the tail, and the head slowly moving round as if upon a pivot 

 whilst he deigned to glance upon the intruder of his territory. 

 When shouted at, the head slowly regained its position, and 

 he winged away as slowly and sedately as he had appeared 

 at first. Preying upon sea-fowl and rabbits, for which he 

 stoops, and bears off* when standing at their burrows, so in- 

 stantly, that ere the rabbit can attempt a dash into his refuge, 

 he is u 'twixt earth and sky," some thousand feet over the 

 ocean. At times, when forced by hunger, the sea eagle ven- 

 tures to attack domestic fowl and sheep. One, shot in imma- 

 ture plumage upon the Galway coast, in our possession, 

 was killed in company with an adult bird by the same shot, 

 whilst feeding upon a sheep which had fallen over the cliffs. 

 The adult bird, falling into the water, was carried away by the 

 tide ere a boat could reach it. 



At one period more common upon our eastern coasts, 

 eyries were, within the last century, at Bray Head and Lam- 

 bay, both of which localities afford many strange stories of 

 the contrivances adopted to obtain the eggs or young. In 

 many parts of Ireland projecting rocky peaks have received 

 the appellation of the " Eagle's Rock," from either species 

 having at one time frequented them. We have also many 

 tales, common alike in the highlands of Ireland and Scot- 

 land, of children being carried off by eagles, which may 

 have been either the golden or sea eagle when pressed by 

 hunger. 



Indigenous. 



GENUS V. PANDION (OSPREY). 



SPECIES 13 -TuE OSPREY. 



,/>**./. 



Haliceetus pandion. Linn. 

 Aigle balbuzard. Temm. 



THIS interesting species is one of great rarity in its occur- 

 rence having only been obtained in five or six instances, 

 two of which were at a pond near the Dublin and Kings- 

 town Railway, in October, 1849.* Differing in a remarkable 

 degree in its habits from all our raptorial species, the osprey, 



* Thompson. 



