such a mistake as suggested is possible, but as the
Guernsey fishermen and gunners, especially the St. Samsons men, are well
acquainted with the White-tailed Eagle, I should not think it probable
that the mistake had been made. The bird, however, cannot be considered
at all common in the Islands; there is no specimen in the Guernsey
Museum, and Mr. Couch has never mentioned to me having had one through
his hands, or recorded it in the 'Zoologist,' as he would have done had
he had one; neither does Mrs. Jago (late Miss Cumber), who used to do a
good deal of stuffing in Guernsey about thirty years ago, remember
having had one through her hands. There can be no reason, however, why
it should not occasionally occur in the Islands, as it does so both on
the French and English side of the Channel. The wonder rather is that it
is so rare as it appears to be.

The Osprey, however, is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and only
marked as occurring in Guernsey.

3. GREENLAND FALCON. _Falco candicans_, Gmelin.--I was much surprised
on my last visit to Alderney, on the 27th of June, 1878, on going into a
small carpenter's shop in the town, whose owner, besides being a
carpenter, is also an amateur bird-stuffer, though of the roughest
description, to find, amongst the dust of his shop, not only the Purple
Heron, which I went especially to see, and which is mentioned
afterwards, but a young Greenland Falcon which he informed me had been
shot in that island about eighteen months ago. This statement was
afterwards confirmed by the person who shot the bird, who was sent for
and came in whilst I was still in the shop. Unfortunately, neither the
carpenter nor his friend who shot the bird had made any note of the
date, and could only remember that the one had shot the bird in that
Island about eighteen months ago and the other had stuffed it
immediately after. This would bring it to the winter of 1876-77, or,
more probably, the late autumn of 1876. In the course of conversation it
appeared to me that the Snow Falcon--as they called this bird--was not
entirely unknown to the carpenter or his friend, though neither could
remember at the time another instance of one having been killed in that
Island. It is, however, by no means improbable that either this species
or the next mentioned, or both, may have occurred in the Islands before,
as Professor Ansted, though he gives no date or locality, includes the
Gyr Falcon in his list of Channe