387 



SPOTTED EAGLE IN NORTHUMBERLAND. 



Bv H. T. ARCHER, 

 Newcns tie-on- Tyne. 



I HAVE examined — in the possession of Mr. Duncan, to whom it is 

 intrusted for preservation — a magnificent specimen of the Spotted 

 Eagle, shot at Cresswell, on the Northumberland coast, on the 

 31st of October. The general colouration is deep brown, with spots 

 of a yellowish white; eye, hazel. In length it is 28 inches, and the 

 extent of the wings 5 feet 7 inches. It had nothing but a little grass 

 in its stomach when dissected ; and Mr. Duncan considers the bird a 

 young one. The figure in Morris's ' British Birds ' well represents it. 



[We wrote Mr. John Hancock, whom we were informed had 

 examined the bird, for his opinion on its specific identity, and he kindly 

 replied : ' The Eagle shot in Northumberland is the Aquila Ncevia, 

 or the true Indian form (a young bird of the year).' We believe this 

 to be the eighth occurrence in Great Britain and Ireland, the fifth 

 English specimen, but the first in the Northern Counties. — Eds.] 



OCCURRENCE OF THE DESERT CHAT 

 (SAXICOLA DESERTI) IN YORKSHIRE. 



By WM. EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S., 

 Member of the British Ornithologists' Union, a7id of the British Association 

 Comtnittee on the Migratioji of Birds. 



Through the kindness of Mr. P. W. Lawton, I received what 

 purported to be 'a light variety of Wheatear,' shot between the 

 villages of Easington and Kilnsea, on the Holderness coast, on the 

 17th of October last. A glance at the specimen at once suggested 

 a rarity, an examination a suspicion that it was Saxicola deserti. 

 This surmise as to the species has been confirmed by Prof Newton 

 and Mr. H. E. Dresser, who most kindly examined and compared 

 the bird, whose tailless state rendered identification a matter of some 

 difficulty. The specimen, which is a female, though it was too much 

 injured to prove it to be such by dissection, is now in my possession, 

 and was exhibited by Mr. Dresser at the meeting of the Zoological 

 Society on the 17th November. It is the first English specimen, the 

 second British — one was shot in Clackmannanshire on the 26th of 

 November, 1880— and, I believe, the fourth occurrence of the species 

 in Western Europe, two having been obtained on Heligoland. The 

 bird appears to be an accidental visitant to countries north of the 

 Mediterranean, its true home being the desert regions of northern 

 and north-eastern Africa, extending eastwards through Persia to 

 north-west India. 



Dec. 1885. 



