116 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
in a most pitiable plight from starvation; and, strange to say, 
T noticed one among them with a head as black as it usually is in 
summer, with the exception of a few very small white feathers 
appearing here and there, and these only to be made out through 
a powerful telescope. This happened on December 22nd. 
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM WEST CUMBERLAND. 
By C. A. Parker, M.D. 
Tue district in which these notes have been made may be 
roughly described as bounded, on the north by St. Bees Head, 
on the south by the Muncaster Fells and Black Coombe, on the 
east by Scafell and its adjacent hills, and on the west by the Irish 
Sea. It is watered chiefly by the rivers Eden, Calder, Irt, Mite, 
and Esk, the three last uniting in a common estuary at 
Ravenglass, while at the foot of the hills lies Wastwater, the 
deepest lake in Britain. So varied a district affords good 
hunting grounds to a naturalist. 
To begin at the mountains with the birds of prey. The Eagle . 
we have no longer: I saw the last of the race some years ago at 
Ambleside, very badly preserved. The Peregrine is still occa- 
sionally seen on the hills: a fine hen bird was brought to me on 
the 22nd November last. It had forsaken the fell for a richly 
stocked preserve, where it no doubt had lived “‘in clover” till it 
came within range of the keeper’s gun. Another keeper told me 
he shot one in the spring on Birker Fell, and I saw one myself 
near Wastwater last May. The Buzzard is common here, and 
almost invariably nests on the precipices, the solitary instance 
I have been able to discover of a nest in a tree being thought 
quite a curiosity by the country people. These birds do good by 
destroying a great number of vipers, but I do not think they 
have pluck enough to touch grouse, though I have known one 
carry a hare in its claws, which must have been a heavy burden 
for a bird of its size. A Buzzard, which was taken when young 
from the nest, is kept in solitary confinement at Newton Manor. 
Last spring it laid two eggs, very oval instead of the usual round 
shape, and only very faintly marked with reddish brown. These 
were taken, and three hen’s eggs substituted, which were duly 
hatched, two of the chickens being quickly devoured by their fierce 
