76
NOTE ON THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE AND SALMON.
Section K.
Mr. H. Wager informed the delegates of the Corresponding
Societies that the Section had appointed a Committee to consider
the Geographical Distribution of Mosses, a subject of interest
to all the Corresponding Societies.
Mr. Vaughan Cornish congratulated the Corresponding
Societies on the result of the discussion on Coast Erosion, at
Bristol, last year, initiated by Mr. Whitaker. Seldom, if ever,
had the Admiralty acted so promptly before. The meeting then
came to an end.
T. V. Holmes, Sec. Cor. Soc. Committee,
Delegate, Essex Field Club.
NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE OP THE
WHITE-TAILED EAGLE (HALIAETUS
ALBICILLA) AND THE SALMON (SALMO
SALAR) AT HARWICH IN 1666.
By MILLER CHRISTY, F.L.S.
WHILST examining recently some documents among the
State Papers (Domestic Series) belonging to the reign of
Charles II., preserved at the Public Record Office, I came by
accident across one letter containing a very quaintly-expressed
and curious item relating to the avi-fauna of the County of Essex.
The letter was written from Harwich on the 20th of October
1666 by one Francis Newby, a servant of the Navy Com-
missioners at Harwich. It runs as follows1 :—
Harwch Octobr 20th, 1666.
My deere friend,
J haue writt three seuerall Letters to you, of wch I haue had
noe Answere of the Rect of any of them, wch makes me Doute of
your non [?] helthe.
for Newes, I haue Not any, onely yesterday heere lighted
vpon the Rope house one the Greene2 a Mighty Greate Eagell.
from whence she Cam is Not knowne. she was kild by one of the
Carpenters belonging to his Mats yard heere, her wings are 7
foote od jnches long, one of her Clawse being vpwards of nine
jnches long. 'tis jmagined y'she Cam from beyond the Sease,
1 State Papers, Domestic, Charles II., vol. 175, no. 120.
2 "The Store-Houses to the Rope Walke" are shown on the Green in the general view
of Harwich given in the beginning of Dale's History and Antiquities of Harwich and
Dovercourt (London, 40 , 1730).