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OCCURRENCE OF THE OSPREY IN LINCOLNSHIRE, 

 WITH SOME NOTES ON THE KITE. 



F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., 



Highfield, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. 



Last February, Mr. Sutton Nelthorpe, of Scawby Hall, the 

 •owner of the Twig-moor Gullery, told me a rare bird had been 

 shot in his grounds which he believed to be an Osprey, and, on 

 my writing- to him afterwards for particulars, he kindly asked 

 me over to see it. 



The bird was then in the keeper's cottag-e, and, after a drive 

 through the g-ullery wood, we went there to inspect it. As to 

 its identity, there is not a shadow of doubt. It is a fine Osprey 

 (Pandion haliaetus), in good plumag-e. It was placed over a door 

 in one of the cottag-e rooms, with its wings extended, and looked 

 a noble bird indeed. The place where it was shot is a piece of 

 ornamental water, not far from Scawby Hall, partly surrounded 

 by wood. Since then I have heard from Mr. Sutton Nelthorpe 

 with the following- particulars : — 



' The Osprey was shot here by the keeper, Thomas Pike, on 

 the ioth May 1900, and stuffed by Dean Robinson, of Scawbv 

 Brook. The bird was observed for nearly a week, frequenting 

 the lower, or easternmost pond, in the pleasure grounds here, 

 being- baited by the Brown-headed Gulls and other birds. It is 

 a female. Inside it were found several shell-less eg-g-s, and in 

 its maw the bones and scales of small coarse fish. I am sorry 

 the bird was killed, but, being- abroad at the time, I had not the 

 chance of saving- its life. Had it been spared, it is just possible 

 that, if it were one of a pair, it might have nested in the old 

 Scotch Fir woods. I am going to have the bird put into a proper 

 case, as an addition to the specimens that I have of the Kite, 

 Peregrine, and Buzzard killed in Lincolnshire.' 



Besides the birds mentioned in this letter, Mr. Sutton 

 Nelthorpe told me when I was at Scawby that he had usually 

 a Golden Oriole (Oriohts galbuld) about, and lie believed one at 

 least came regularly. 



As to Kites {Milvus milvits), few, living- now, can imagine 

 how common they were about half a century ago in Lincolnshire, 

 Kingslev speaks of 'kite upon kite' being seen in the tens. 

 The Rev. Murray A. Mat hew in the 3rd volume of ' British 

 Birds' says: 'In the middle ages it is on record that foreigners 



iyoi Juno i. — • . 1. 



