5000 Tue ZooLocist—JuLy, 1876. 
means of arousing the authorities to a sense of their shortcomings.—J. H. 
Gurney, jun. 
The Somersetshire Egyptian Vulture.— When at Twizell House, 
Northumberland, the seat of J. P. Selby, who died in April, 1867, at 
the age of eighty-seven, I saw, among many beautiful paintings by that 
distinguished artist and naturalist, a large and very finely-executed oil- 
painting of the Egyptian Vulture, the first, and at that time the only, 
specimen which had been obtained in England. TI allude to this picture, 
because I have some additions to make to Mr. Selby’s account. The owner 
of the bird, Mr. John Matthew, of Chelvey, near Bristol (not Mr. A. 
Matthew) has informed me that it was shot by a servant of his father’s ; 
that it was first seen in a field near the house; that it was killed on the 
cliffs bordering the Bristol Channel, about half a mile distant; and that its 
supposed mate—alluded to by Selby—was, he believes, only a heron. 
It was stuffed by Mr. Matthew, and has since found a place in his collection 
at Chelvey (Crotch, ‘ Birds of Somerset,’ p. 1). When it was opened, we 
are told by Bishop Stanley, the smell was exceedingly offensive—a state- 
ment for the truth of which I will readily vouch, from what I have myself 
seen in Egypt. Stanley gives the wrong date, as did Mudie and others, 
which led Mr. Eyton to suppose that England had been visited by the 
Egyptian vulture two years following (‘ Rarer British Birds,’ p. 3).—d. ; 
June 9, 1876. 
Variety of the Sea Eagle.—In addition to the varieties of the sea eagle 
(Haliaétus albicilla (Linn.), quoted in the fourth edition of Yarrell (p. 29), 
may be mentioned a very pale specimen in Mr. Newcome’s collection at 
Feltwell, in Norfolk, which Mr. Baker, of Cambridge, informed me was 
caught in the nets which were set for catching falcons in a part of Holland. 
It is as much worth recording for the manner of its capture as for its being 
a variety.—-Id. 
Peregrine Falcons breeding on the Yorkshire Coast.—I have now in my 
possession three young peregrine falcons, two males and one female: they 
were taken on the cliffs at Bempton. three or four miles north of Flam- 
borough Head, by the climbers who gather the eggs of the sea-birds. One 
old bird was frequently seen in the spring of 1875. This season two 
falcons were seen in the same neighbourhood. The nest was found and 
the young birds taken during the last week in May. I learn from the 
climbers that it is very many years since the peregrine was known to breed 
in these cliffs—IWV. J. Cope; Barnsley, June 20, 1876. 
Sparrowhawk and Missel Thrush.— Walking along the banks of the 
River Dodder, near Rathfarnham, County Dublin, on Ascension Day, 
Mr. Hunter Stokes and I saw a hen chaffinch closely pursued by a sparrow- 
hawk. As the birds approached us, the windings and turnings of both 
pursued and pursuer were interesting in the extreme: they passed almost 
