72 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
222. Golden Eagle Shot. — No doubt many readers of Nature Notes 
will be glad to hear that a very fine golden eagle paid a visit to Grovelly Woods, 
Wilton, near Salisbury. I believe it is a very rare thing to see in the South 
of England ; but most unfortunately it met the fate of a good many of our 
rare and noble feathered visitors: it was shot by a gamekeeper on February 22. 
The last record I could find of an eagle visiting Salisbury was in 1829, when 
one perched on the vane of the Cathedral one afternoon and stayed till next day. 
A plot, it appears, was made to shoot it with a rifle-ball, and a party went 
up to the “ eight doors,” but their endeavours were baffled by the large ball 
which projects below the cross. Early next morning the eagle flew away 
southward, unharmed. 
Until about ten years ago, when the spire was restored, I believe a cormorant 
used to visit the Cathedral spire. 
Dunol/ie, Bourne Avenue, A. D. R. Bacchus. 
Salisbury. 
223. Massacre of the Innocents on the Serpentine. — The destruc- 
tion by dogs of the young of the black swan and other waterfowl, referred to 
again by Mr. Macpherson this month, should receive attention from the authorities. 
This carnage has been going on for some years to my own knowledge, and it really 
seems pitiable. When forsaken by their parents could not the birds be removed 
to other more protected waters until they are full grown ? A small portion of the 
Serpentine itself might even be enclosed and reserved as a nursery. 
J. E. Saul. 
63, Gondar Gardens, West Hampstead, N. IV. 
March 9, 1905. 
224. The Wheatear in Hyde Park. — Referring to Mr. Macpherson’s 
remarks on the non-occurrence of the wheatear in Hyde Park in his interesting 
“Notes on London Birds” in this month’s Nature Notes, it is perhaps worth 
mentioning that I saw one of the birds on the grass near the Grosvenor Gate 
on September 16 last. J. E. Saul. 
225. February Jottings. — Here, in Herefordshire, one gets a full view of 
the Black mountains of Radnorshire. They are looking very grand now, for 
they are gleaming white in the morning sunshine under a mantle of freshly fallen 
snow. They remind one of real Alps ! Far away to the west of them the Brecon 
Beacons stand out clear against the sky, looking for all the world like a second 
Vesuvius and Monte Corno. 
There is a blackbird with white feathers on his head who must be a native 
of this farm, for he is to be seen about daily and never leaves the place. The 
fowls peck him if he comes near them. lie is both greedy and tame. He 
often perches on some old box-.shrubs to receive crumbs which are readily thrown 
to him. What little freak of Nature put those white feathers on his head ? 
The robins were mating here in January, and one day in the middle of the 
present month I heard a lark sing for the first time this year. It was a sunny day, 
marvellously sunny for the season. Up on the top branches of an apple-tree 
starlings sat parting and chattering like little parrarpiets in the sunshine. Two 
bullfinches flitted in and out amongst sonre gooseberry bushes whose buds they 
pulled and scattered on the ground to their satisfaction, just as their kind scatter 
the down on thistles in summer-time. .\ beautiful cock pheasant came screaming 
overhead and dived into a richly wooded copse near, glittering like a fairy thing as 
he shot through a forest of saplings so close together that the only wonder was he 
did not dash his gorgeous head to pieces in his swift flight. Not far off some hen 
pheasants were feeding amidst fallen leaves. Every now and then they looked up 
with the quick movement of the head so characteristic of game birds. A 
brace of partridges, the remnant of a covey of eight, suddenly rise as I appto.ach, 
and rush away flapping their strong wings. The hen pheasants glide quickly 
under cover. 
F. E. Birkett. 
