1-j2 the birds of devox. 



Mr. Sno-vr, of Oare, on the borders of Devon, a few years before 1874, and 

 Avas recorded iu ' Science Gossip ' (1872, pp. 115, 116 ; 1 874, pp. 214, 283) 

 as a Golden Eagle (C. S,, Zool. 1875, p. 4334). Two were shot near 

 Tiverton in 1887, the last of them on 27th December ; it weighed 10 lbs. 

 (Trans. Devon. Assoc, vol. xx. p. 40, 1888). An Eagle, probably of this 

 species, was seen on Dartmoor iu May and June, 1891, and an immature 

 female was trapped at Dartmouth in the autumn of that year (J. B. R.). 



The AVhite-tailed Eagle is included amongst occasional visitors to 

 Luudy Island, and is said to have formerly bred there (Trans. Devon. 

 Assoc, iv. p. 605, and viii. p. 308 ; Harting's Handbook of B. Birds, p. 3). 



The AVhite-tailcd Eagle, according to Mr. E. H. Kodd, has been met 

 with but very rarely of recent years in Cornwall, and all the specimens 

 reportcl were in immature plumage. One was killed at Carnekey, in the 

 parish of Kilkhampton, on the north coast, close to Devonshire, Xovem- 

 ber 9th, 1844. It has occurred a few times in recent years in Dorset. 



[Gos-Hawk. Adur iKtlumharhis (Linn.). 



The occurrence of this bird iu Devon is very doubtful. It appears to 

 have been admitted into the Devonshire Eauna on the authority of Dr. 

 Tucker, of Ashbiirton, who includes it in a " List of some rare Land-Birds 

 which have been discovered iu the neighbourhood of Ashburton," iu Jones's 

 ' Guide to the Scenery,' 1 823, and of his sons, who enumerate it in a 

 '•List of Dartmoor Birds" in ' Carrir.gton's Dartmoor,' 1826, p. Ixxix. 

 Dr. Edward Moore, in his "List of Birds of Devonshire," in Mag. jS'at. 

 Hist. n. s. vol. i. March 1837, observes: — " Eound on Dartmoor, vide 

 Carrington's Poem ' Dartmoor.' A nest was seen by Bolitho of Devonport 

 at South Tawton, and one of the old birds was wounded, but escaped." But 

 in his " List of the Birds of Dartmoor," in the appendix to Eowe's ' Peram- 

 bulation,' 1st ed. 1848, p. 229, he says, " seen on the Moor. A specimen 

 at Bolitho's was shot on the nest near South Tawton in 1830." 



The Gos-Hawk very rarely indeed, if ever, visits the South-western 

 Counties, and we do not know any collection which possesses a specimen. 

 However, it will not do to pass the bird over without notice, since Dr. 

 Edward Moore has related, as quoted above, that a Gos-Hawk"s nest existed 

 at South Tawton on the borders of the Eorest in 1830, and that one of 

 the birds was shot upon the nest. This bird was taken to Bolitho, the 

 bird-preserver of Plymouth, and was sold by him to a Col. Burton. AVhen 

 interrogated by Mr. J. Gatcombe, Bolitho insisted that he had had a 

 Gos-Hawk to stuff many years ago, and that he saw another hanging up 

 in a gamekeeper's "larder" a few years since, which was too far decayed 

 to do anything with. In his Xat. Hist, of S. Devon, Bellamy has re- 

 corded the occurrence of a young Gos-Hawk near Ealmouth, in August 

 1838, and says " it probably breeds on the coast" (I). 



Xow we are pretty couiident that no dependence is to be placed on these 

 stories, ard that the Gos-Hawk's nest mentioned above was, perhaps, that of 

 a Sparrow-Hawk, the female having been mistaken for the larger and rarer 

 species. Mr. Gatcombe suggests that this Devonshire Gos-Hawk may have 



