Birds of Prey
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of over 600 specimens of kites, buzzards, hawks, eagles, harriers, vultures (Accipitridae) and ospreys (Pandionidae). These date from 1827 to 2007.
This collection includes around 230 mounted specimens, 225 cabinet skins, 15 skulls and skeletons, and numerous eggs. There are also several bird parts (heads, feet and wings) and a small collection of pellets. The majority of the specimens in the collection are from Scotland and other parts of Britain, but there are also examples from Greenland, the USA, South America, India, Borneo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Switzerland and Russia.
Highlights include the last red kite shot on Arran in 1829 and the skeleton of the African fish eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer), which is one of only a few skeletons of this species in a museum anywhere in the world. There are also some excellent examples of taxidermy, such as a golden eagle mounted by Peter Spicer and a pair of peregrine falcons mounted by Rowland Ward. The notable ornithologist John Hancock of Newcastle may have mounted some of the birds of prey in the Cochrane Collection.
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