Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/259



district to which the following notes relate comprises those parts of the Counties of Mayo and Sligo which are situated within a ten mile radius of Moyne Abbey, which is taken as the centre of the district. The list unfortunately is somewhat imperfect, as, from the difficulty of obtaining authentic and reliable information, I have been obliged to depend almost entirely upon my own observations; and in order to have the list correct, if not long, I have hesitated to insert the name of any bird that I have not identified myself, unless confident of the correctness of the information supplied to me concerning it.

Sea Eagle, Haliaëtus albicilla.—This fine bird, some few years ago, was to be seen nearly every winter frequenting the sand-hills of Bartragh and Enniscrone, feeding on rabbits and on dead fish cast ashore by the surf. In December, 1851, a pair of Sea Eagles haunted the sand-hills of Bartragh for several days, one of which I shot as it was resting after a heavy meal of rabbit and hake: it was a fine bird in the second year's plumage. The second bird remained about the sand-hills for some time after, but I think got off unharmed; nor would I have shot the bird mentioned but that I wanted to set it up as a specimen. I used frequently to see or hear of Eagles being about Bartragh up to 1856; but since then I have neither seen nor heard of a bird visiting this locality, and