BIRDS 217 



to be an annual nest in the rocks which surround the lake of 

 Ulleswater, and the great trout of that lake has been taken out 

 of its nest, upwards of ten pounds weight ; it however frequently 

 visits this country.' 



There is not the least reason to suppose that Dr. Heysham 

 spoke from personal observation. But he distinguishes the 

 White-tailed Eagle from the species just referred to, and treats 

 of them separately. He had kept the White-tailed Eagle in con- 

 finement from its youth up, and consequently possessed an 

 accurate knowledge of its changes of plumage. As, according 

 to Heysham, who treats his Sea Eagle as a distinct species from 

 the White-tailed, the bird which bred in the Ulleswater district 

 was not the same species as he had obtained from the Keswick 

 district, we have no alternative but to believe that the bird 

 reported to him from Ulleswater was the Osprey. It cannot 

 have been the Golden Eagle, since fish were found in its 

 eyrie. This conjecture receives additional support from the 

 evidence of the Bev. W. Eichardson. Eichardson was a good 

 naturalist, a painstaking botanist, and a keen observer of birds. 

 He was as well acquainted with the ornithological writers of the 

 day as Dr. Heysham. In his search for rare plants he had 

 visited many parts of Lakeland, but of course he was best and 

 most minutely acquainted with Ulleswater, and the notes on 

 Ulleswater which Dr. Heysham furnishes are generally copied 

 from Eichardson, whose account of the natural history of Ulles- 

 water was drawn up in 1793, and must have been in Dr. Hey- 

 sham's hands in a printed form when he wrote in 1796-1797. 

 Eichardson proves that he had identified the Osprey by quoting 

 Berkenhout's description of Falco halioztus, the Osprey or Fish- 

 ing Eagle, to which he adds the result of his own observation 

 from boyhood : ' The Osprey, or Fishing Eagle, is frequently 

 seen fishing ; he is very bold, and in pursuit of his prey will 

 dart down within forty yards of a man.' This is my case for 

 the proposition that the Osprey was formerly resident in Lakeland. 

 The individual links in the chain of evidence may not be con- 

 sidered to be final, when any single one is taken alone, but all 

 legal-minded men will, I believe, admit that, when taken together, 

 they fairly prove my case. The inherent improbability of the 



