OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1885 . 
55 
5. The White-tailed or Sea Eagle ( H'aliaetus alhicilla ).-— 
A white-tailed eagle was shot some years ago at Sacombe, and is 
now in the possession of Mr. Abel H. Smith, M.P., Woodhall Park. 
A hundred years ago the white-tailed eagle was tolerably abundant 
in Scotland, and it is reported to have bred in Westmoreland, 
Cumberland, and other English counties. At present it is an 
accidental straggler to our shores, but is still occasionally to be met 
with on the west coast of Ireland. Mr. Henry Seebohm alludes to 
it as follows:—“ Like the golden eagle, the present species will 
often sit, for long intervals, silent and motionless, on some tall rock- 
pinnacle, dreamily scanning the country or the water below. It 
will then launch itself heavily in the air, mounting upwards, in wide 
curving flight, and now, sailing with wings fully expanded, and the 
tips of the primaries slightly recurved, will sweep along over 
mountain, moorland-waste, and sea, advancing seemingly but with 
little effort.”* A few words attributed by Sheridan Knowles to the 
Swiss patriot, William Tell, are so strikingly in accord with this 
description that I shall venture to quote them :— 
“ Scaling yonder peak, 
I saw an eagle, hovering near its brow, 
O’er the abyss: his broad expanded wings 
Lay calm and motionless upon the air. 
As if he floated there without their aid, 
By the sole act of his unlorded will, 
That buoyed him proudly up.” 
6. The Kite ( Milvus ictinus). —Conspicuous among the rare 
birds at present preserved at Munden House is a kite; the date of 
its capture cannot be positively ascertained, but it is known to have 
been shot on the Munden estate. At the commencement of the 
present century the kite was tolerably abundant in some of the mid¬ 
land counties of England. Yarrell states that in Hertfordshire and 
Essex it commonly passed under the name of “Puttock.” It 
is still to be met with in many of the Scotch glens, and can readily 
be distinguished among the British Ealconidae, even when at 
a distance on the wing, by its long forked tail, and its graceful, 
gliding flight.f Montagu states that “ it is chiefly observed in the 
more-wooded districts where timber-trees abound,” J and it seems 
very probable that the proximity of Bricket Wood may account for 
its being taken at Munden. 
7. The Merlin ( Falco JEsalon). —Mr. James H. Tuke informs 
me that a merlin was shot near Hitchin. The merlin is one of 
the smallest of British hawks. It is a bluish-grey bird, more 
or less tinted with dull red about the neck and breast. It is 
a summer migrant, and nests in Scotland and the north of Eng¬ 
land. It will be remembered that Mr. Henry Seebohm, when 
lecturing in this room, gave us some very interesting particulars 
respecting the nesting of the merlin on moors in the neighbourhood 
of Sheffield. It is a very courageous bird. “ In spirit,” writes 
* ‘ British Birds,’ vol. i, p. 89. 
t Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ ed. 4, vol. i, p. 92. 
+ ‘ Ornithological Dictionary,’ ed. 1833, p. 283. 
