344 



JOHN WATSON i EAGLES OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 



two remarkably fine specimens, male and female, were deposited 

 in the Kendal Museum, from Cumberland, though the late 

 Dr. Gough, more than a local naturalist, deplored that they 

 were not accompanied by actual data. There can be little 

 doubt that the Eagle which Clarke"' described as the ' largest/ 

 and being of a colour 'very dark brown, inclining to black 

 on the back and upper part of the neck,' was A. cJuysa'etus. 

 In this bird the stretched wings measured six feet eight inches, 

 and the species referred to was very ' daring and bold.' 

 Golden Eagles certainly had their haunts near those of the wild 

 Red Deer on Martindale Fells, and in 1775 tried to establish an 

 eyrie there. And Richardson — who contributed a paper on the 

 Natural History of Ullswater to Hutchinson's ' History of Cum- 

 berland' — states that the majority of Eagles which frequented 

 the Lake District belonged to A. chrysaetus. The golden eagle 

 bred on the highest part of the Cheviots, and in 1838 one or two 

 pairs bred among the Border mountains. From the description 

 of birds killed, but not identified by competent naturalists, there 

 are probably records of half a dozen Golden Eagles ; from the 

 circumstance mentioned, however, these must always remain 

 among the possibly doubtful specimens. Durnford in his ' Birds 

 of Walney Island,' records a specimen of A. cluysaetus shot 

 near Furness Abbey in 1815. At the present time it cannot 

 even be said that the Golden Eagle is even a casual visitant to 

 its former haunts, and there is no recent record of its occurrence. 

 White-tailed Eagle (Haliaetus albicilla). Even now the White- 

 tailed Eagle occasionally makes its appearance at intervals of a 

 few years, the birds mostly occurring in winter, and being in im- 

 mature plumage. In January of the present year (1886) a 

 specimen occurred off Humphrey Head, where it stayed for about 

 a week, preying upon sea-birds. On a Sunday the gamekeeper, 

 walking his rounds, came upon the bird feeding upon a dead 

 sheep; fortunately, at the time, he was without his gun. 



This species was certainly common, almost throughout the 

 whole district, during the second half of the last, and the begin- 

 ning of the present centuries. Not less than a dozen eyries 

 must have existed at the same time. About 1777, Clarke records 

 that the species bred at Wallow Crag, near Hawes water, in 

 Westmoreland. The birds laid two eggs, and when the young 

 were hatched it was from the vicinity of the nest that there were 

 taken thirty-five fish (mostly Lake Trout), seven lambs, besides 

 other provision of game. The trout were mostly taken from 



* Survey of the Lakes, 1787. 



Naturalist, 



