sticks, one end resting on the ledge of a rock, the other on two birch trees, and covered with several layers of rushes and heath. On this nest lay one young one and an addled egg, and by them a lamb, a hare, and three heath poults. The nest was about two yards square, and, unlike the nests of other birds, quite flat. The young eagle was black, of the shape of a goshawk, and almost the weight of a goose, rough- footed or feathered down to the foot, and having a white ring about its tail. About the year 1720 one was taken up in the parish of Glossop, upon the high mountain called Kinder-scout, being found in a feeble state, said to be owing to the inclemency of the weather, as it afterwards recovered, and was carried about the country and shown as a natural curiosity. About seventy years ago one was seen in Hardwick park, a noble domain of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire. A full grown eagle of this species was shot between Cromford and Lea wood, about twenty years ago, which was presented to Peter Arkwright, Esq., of Rock House, Cromford, who had it finely preserved. The latest specimen seen in Derbyshire occurred in the winter of the present year (1843), at Matlock. It frequented the high and craggy rocks of that picturesque village, and more particularly the magnificent one called the High Torr, which, rising 300 feet above the valley of the Derwent, formed a noble throne for the monarch of air. This bird came during a severe snow, and remained a week or ten days, being shot at several times without success, and, we presume not relishing the indignity, flew over the summit in a most majestic manner (apparently unscathed), and was never seen afterwards.
The Osprey, (Falco haliaëtos). Melbourne Pool is an extensive sheet of water, covering an extent of ground little short of 40 acres, having its upper end "crowned with silver alders," intermingled with long sedge, and its southern bank skirted with tall firs and luxuriant chesnuts, which
"Bend their green foliage shivering in the wind,
To dip into its surface."
During the winter season this pool becomes the favourite abode of teals, snipes, ducks, and curious aquatic fowl; and the woodcock, a rare and uncertain visitant, has occasionally been taken here.[1] In
- ↑ For a notice of another rare and curious bird, shot off this water, the reader is referred to Mr. Yarrell's interesting and beautiful work, 'The British Birds,' vol. ii. p. 434.
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