62 Falconidce. 



such intimate knowledge of their numbers will be readily under- 

 stood. The English is a close translation of the scientific name : 

 haliceetus being derived from a\9 + aero?, ' sea eagle,' and albicilla 

 1 white-tailed/ 



The White -tailed Eagle, or Erne, compared with the Golden 

 Eagle, is as Sir R. Payne-Gallwey points out as a vulture to a 

 hawk ; indeed, while the latter is so comely, and puts on such a 

 lordly air of nobility, the Erne is somewhat vulture-like in shape 

 and in aspect. As with that ' ignoble' bird, its plumage, too, is 

 often ragged and untidy ; the ends of the wing-feathers, and 

 above all the tail, are rarely perfect, generally bruised and dis- 

 coloured, and often much worn. This seems to show that it 

 frequently rests and feeds on level soft ground, such as borders 

 the sea. It will also, on occasion, feed on carrion, which the 

 nobler bird would disdain to touch. In France it is known as 

 Aigle Pygargue or VOrfraie; in Germany as Fisch-adler ; and in 

 Sweden as Hafs-'6i*n, 'Sea-Eagle.' 



In addition to the example of the White-tailed Eagle, or Erne, 

 given above, I was informed by the late Rev. G. Marsh, (and 

 further details have been kindly given me by Lord Suffolk,) that 

 a splendid specimen of this species was caught in a trap, on 

 December llth, 1841, by his Lordship's gamekeeper in Stone- 

 hill Wood, part of the old forest of Braydon : it was a female, 

 and for ten days had previously been observed by the keeper 

 soaring very high in the air, and it committed very great devas- 

 tations amongst the game; consequently a gin was set for it, 

 and in this it was caught, and when first found by the keeper 

 was but little injured. Its fierceness, however, prevented its 

 being taken alive, for the man dare not remove it from the 

 trap till he had killed it. It is now preserved at Charlton ; 

 and a grand bird indeed it is, and well deserves to stand, as it 

 does, at the very head of the feathered tribes of Wiltshire. 

 There is, also, a brief notice in the 'Report of the Maryborough 

 College Natural History Society,' for the half-year ending 

 Christmas, 1867, to the effect that 'a White-tailed Eagle was 

 shot in Savernake Forest in 1859 ;' but no further details are 



