GOLDEN EAGLE : WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 3 



In 1864, one shot at Thornton, near Pickering, and sent by Mr. 

 J. R. Mills of that place to Mr. Graham of York for preservation, 

 was exhibited at the meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Club 

 on the 4th of May. 



HALI^ETUS ALBICILLA (L.) 

 White-tailed Eagle. 



A rare autumn and winter visitant . 



The White-tailed Eagle is but a very occasional visitor, 

 occurring chiefly in the autumn and winter. Although most 

 frequent on the coast, yet it is by no means confined to it, and 

 visits our large inland woods and waters, where its size soon 

 attracts the attention of the gamekeeper, to whose gun or snare 

 it usually falls a victim. In Yorkshire, as in Norfolk, Durham 

 and Northumberland (Birds of N. and D., by John Hancock, 

 1874) all the specimens that have occurred are in immature 

 plumage, no mention being made of mature specimens. Mr. 

 Stevenson in his 'Birds of Norfolk' attributes this to the well-known 

 habit of the old birds of most of the Falconid^ of driving away 

 their young from the nesting places as soon as they are able to 

 provide for themselves. A specimen, however, in the collection 

 of Mr. A. Clapham, of Scarborough, is interesting, inasmuch as 

 only two or three feathers of the tail show black tips, having only 

 these to cast to attain to maturity of plumage. This bird was 

 shot at Castle Howard in the year 1841. 



In Graves' History of Cleveland one is mentioned as having 

 been shot in December 1807, at Staingate, near Danby Lodge, 

 and is possibly the one referred to in the next paragraph. 



Mr. Thomas Stephenson of Whitby has kindly obtained for 

 me information of one shot in Stonegate Ghyll many years ago by 

 a man named Pringles whilst poaching by moonlight. This is 

 now in the possession of Mr, Page of Guisborough. 



One was shot off the mouth of the Tees on the 5th of Novem- 

 ber 1823 (Zoologist, 1845, p. 1051). 



