MAGAZINE 



OF 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



I. — The Fauna ofTwizell. By P. J. Selby, Esq. (Continued from. 

 Vol. i. p. 424.) 



From the circumscribed extent, as well as the natural features 

 of the district described, the list of birds is necessarily very limited 

 in species belonging to the Grallatorial and Natatorial orders, but 

 contains a fair ordinary average of Insessorial as well as Rapacious 

 and Gallinaceous birds. In front stands the great sea eagle, 

 (H. albicilla,) as I have twice had the gratification of seeing this 

 noble bird wing its way across the district on its route from the 

 coast to the interior. Scarcely a winter indeed passes without 

 one or more individuals being seen in some part of the county ; and 

 during one season three of these birds almost daily frequented Chil- 

 ingham Park, the seat of the Earl of Tankerville, where they were 

 observed to prey upon the fallen deer. These visitors, it may be 

 observed, are generally immature birds ; but as no eyrie at present 

 exists, either in Northumberland or in the south of Scotland, they 

 are probably the offspring of some of those pairs which are yet to be 

 seen in the northern districts and islands of Scotland, and which, in 

 defiance of the assiduity and daring of the shepherd and Highland 

 fox-hunter, continue at times to rear their young in some precipi- 

 tous and inaccessible rock, or else upon the islets of its little fre- 

 quented lochs. These, when able to provide for themselves, are 

 driven from the place of their nativity by their parents, who allow 

 of no compeer within their peculiar beat, and in their search of a 

 domain of their own pay us these passing visits. The peregrine 



VOh. II. no. IT d d 



