186 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



years ago. One of the Edenhall keepers trapped a fine Rough- 

 legged Buzzard in Barrow Wood, in December 1879, The 

 other local specimen, preserved at Edenhall, is a bird which 

 James Plenderleath killed on the Solway Flow a few years 

 earlier. A Silloth gunner killed a Rough-legged Buzzard in 

 rather an unusual way. He was wending his way home by 

 moonlight, when he disturbed a large bird at roost. He shot it 

 as it went away, and, on picking up his prize, found that he had 

 secured a fine Rough-legged Buzzard. 



SPOTTED EAGLE. 



Aquila clanga, Pall. 



The only occurrence of any form of Spotted Eagle that can 

 be cited for Lakeland is that of a bird washed ashore on Walney 

 Island in 1875. It was found by a fisherman named Richardson, 

 who took the dead bird to Williams the blacksmith of Barrow. 

 At his house it was examined by my brother Ibis, Mr. W. A. 

 Durnford, who referred the specimen to Aquila ncevia. Accord- 

 ingly, he recorded it as such in his * List of the Birds found in 

 the neighbourhood of Walney Island.' Mr. F. S. Mitchell 

 included the specimen in his Birds of Lancashire, as he told me 

 afterwards, on the strength both of Mr. Durnford's notice, and 

 of a private communication that passed between them. Mr. 

 Williams, who mounted the bird, has often repeated to me that 

 it became the property of a man named Jackson. This indivi- 

 dual kept the bird for a few years, but eventually got into 

 difficulties, and was ' sold up.' I have never been able to ascer- 

 tain who purchased this Eagle at Jackson's sale, though I adver- 

 tised for information in a Barrow newspaper. The moral of 

 which is, that all really rare or unique specimens of ' British 

 Birds ' should be deposited from the first in some public 

 museum. 



GOLDEN EAGLE. 



Aquila chrysaetus (L. ). 



The earliest local reference to Eagles as yet discovered appears 

 in a description of the ' Manor of Lydel ' on our northern border, 



