ORNITHOLOGY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 203 



6th. A very beautiful adult male Sparrowhawk managed to 

 get through the wire-netting at top of our pheasant-pens; it was 

 brought to me alive, apparently quite uninjured, and restored to 

 freedom at my window. 



10th. I received from Mr. Matthews, taxidermist, of Stamford, 

 a female Hen Harrier, stuffed by him, and killed about the middle 

 of November last by one of Lord Exeter's gamekeepers in Colly - 

 weston wood : this functionary subsequently informed me that 

 the bird was eating a rabbit when he killed it, but that " its 

 principal food was Partridges, and its flight was almost like the 

 Common Owl." 



11th. I this day received, as a present from Mr. Ralph Nevile, 

 the only Northamptonshire specimen of Golden Eagle that I have 

 ever heard of. This bird is, I should say, in the plumage of its 

 second year ; it was killed in October, 1849, by one John Barratt, 

 in the " High Woods" between Burghley House and Walcot, the 

 seat of Mr. R. Nevile, and was stuffed and mounted by Mr. Evans, 

 taxidermist, of Bourne, Lincolnshire. 



12th. A male Pochard appeared on our park pond. 



13th. A very fine Canada Gander, one of several of this 

 species that have been haunting our meadows for some time, was 

 killed by a farmer on an estate adjoining Lilford, and sent, at my 

 request, to me for inspection. These birds are wanderers from 

 Blatherwycke, the seat of Mr. O'Brien (cf. Zool. 1891, pp. 45, 46). 



16th. I received a pair of Pintails, in the flesh, from the Pea- 

 kirk decoy. A pair of Stock Doves were finishing a nest in an 

 elm tree near the boat-house, Lilford. I received from Peter- 

 borough a stuffed Oystercatcher, killed on 2nd inst. at Stanground. 



18th. I heard from Mr. W. Bazeley that he had just received, 

 for preservation, a female Goosander, shot at Ravensthorpe 

 reservoir. This specimen was most kindly presented to me in 

 April by Mr. J. Eunson. 



23rd. Sixteen degrees of frost registered at daylight. The 

 decoyman brought in four Wigeon, and reports having left two of 

 this species, about forty Mallards, a male Gadwall, and three 

 Pochards on the pool. 



24th. Twenty-three Golden Plovers seen on Wadenhoe this 

 morning by D. M. 



27th. I heard from Mr. H. Field that a Sea Eagle had been 

 shot at Oakley on the evening of 24th inst., and sent to him the 



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