Birds. 1301 



old eagles will not suffer their young to remain near them after they 

 have become able to provide for themselves : and we may here remark, 

 that it is probably for the same reason, that so large a proportion of 

 the different birds of prey which occur on our coasts in the autumn, 

 are immature specimens. 



This is the only species of eagle which belongs to Norfolk; for al- 

 though the golden eagle has been more than once mentioned by orni- 

 thologists as having been taken in the county, we have been unable to 

 obtain satisfactory evidence of its occurrence, and are disposed to be- 

 lieve that specimens of H. albicilla in various stages of plumage have 

 been mistaken for golden eagles. 



It has been observed that white-tailed eagles, when they appear on 

 the coast, are constantly followed and mobbed by flocks of gulls, and 

 that when they come inland they are similarly accompanied and per- 

 secuted by rooks. 



A young male bird of this species was some years since procured off 

 Winterton in the following manner. Some boys having thrown out a 

 line and hook into the sea, baited with a herring, for the purpose of 

 catching a gull, the bait was spied and pounced upon by the eagle ; 

 and the hook becoming fixed in the inside of his foot, he was found by 

 the boys upon their return to examine their line, floating on the sur- 

 face of the water. They immediately went off in a boat and completed 

 their capture without much difficulty. This bird was subsequently 

 kept in confinement for some years, but accidentally escaping, was 

 shot a few days afterwards by a gamekeeper in the neighbourhood. 



Osprey, Pandion haliaeetus. A few specimens occur nearly every 

 year, most frequently in autumn, but occasionally in the spring and win- 

 ter months. The habit of the osprey is to fix upon some large piece 

 of water, and if not disturbed, to confine its fishing almost exclu- 

 sively to that particular locality, so long as the supply to be obtained 

 from it continues to be tolerably abundant. By far the greater 

 number of those which are taken in this county are in immature 

 plumage. 



The species next in order, the Gyr Falcon, Falco gyrfalco, has been 

 included by some in the list of Norfolk birds, but we think too hastily, 

 as the only specimen known to have been procured in the county, 

 showed evident marks of having escaped from a falconer. 



Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus. Of not unfrequent occurrence, 

 especially during the autumn. A pair of these birds formerly bred in. 

 the cliffs on the sea-coast at Hunstanton, but we believe have 

 now ceased to do so ; and we learn from the Rev. Richard Lubbock's 



