was given to it, was observed to seize it across the body,
placing tlie inner and outer toes at right angles with the
middle and hind toes, and digging in the claws, held the
fish most firmly by four opposite po in ts; not relaxing its
hold or altering the position of the toes, hut picking out the
portions of flesh from between them with great dexterity.
The Osprey makes a large nest, sometimes on high trees,
at others 011 rocky islets, or about old ruins in lakes. When
thus placed, it is usually in the form of a truncated cone; the
sticks composing it project very little beyond the sides, and
are built up with turf and other compact materials; the
summit is of moss, very flat and even, and the cavity occupies
a comparatively small part ol it. The eggs, usually
three in number, are subject to great and beautiful variety in
colour. Generally they are irregularly and boldly blotched,
and spotted with rich reddish-brown, on a white or yellowish-
white ground, but in many examples a secondary tint of
violet or pale yellowisli-red occurs, while occasionally the
specimen is almost entirely suffused with a bright orange-red
or purple. They vary in size also considerably, measuring
from 2-68 to 2-17 by 1-94 to 1-64 inches, and one sent from
Sweden by the late Mr. Wheelwright measures only 1-68 by
l -22 inches. They are generally hatched at the end of May
or in June. During the period of incubation, the male
watches near, catches fish for the female, and brings the
food to the n e s t: she therefore seldom quits the eggs, and
then only for a very short interval. The parents feed the
young till they are fully able to provide for themselves, and
have been seen to supply them with fish long after they had
left the nest, and both were flying about on the wing together.
The old birds rear but one brood in the year.
The Osprey does not winter in Great Britain, but at other
seasons has been obtained in almost every maritime county,
while it not unfrequently occurs as far inland as Oxfordshire
and Shropshire. On the east and south coast of England
not a year goes by but it is seen, and too often killed, on its
passage in spring or fall. Mr. Stevenson remarks, that
whereas not long ago in Norfolk it used to occur most
— IP Iii'i— I b l lW
OSPREY. 33
generally at the latter season, it now appears most generally
at the former, and he ascribes this change to the great
destruction of the s.pecies in Scotland, which has of late
years stopped the supply of young birds that would have
been otherwise bred in that country and migrated southward
in autumn. The spring visitants, which are usually birds
of the preceding year, often protract their stay as late as
June, but there is no well-authenticated instance of the
Osprey having bred in this or any other part’ of England.
In Christchurch Bay the bird is called the “ Mullet-Hawk,”
and the figure of the bird here given represents it with a
Grey Mullet under its foot.
In Scotland, Sir William Jardine, writing in 1832, said :
“ A pair or two may be found about most of the Highland
lochs, where they fish, and, during the breeding season,
build on the ruined towers so common on the edges or
insulated rocks of these wild waters. The nest is an
immense fabric of rotten sticks—
Itself a burden for the tallest tree,
and is generally placed, if such exists, on the top of the
chimney, and if this' be wanting, on the highest summit of
the building. An aged tree may sometimes be chosen, but
ruins are always preferred, if near. They have the same
propensity of returning to an old station with those of
America; and if one is shot, a mate is soon found, and
brought to the ancient abode. Loch Lomond, Loch Awe
and Killchurn Castle, and Loch Menteitli, have been long
breeding-places.” All this is now changed. Twenty years
since, between 1849 and 1851, Mr. Wolley found that,
owing to the destruction of their occupants, most of the
breeding-places named by former observers were deserted ;
the only exceptions heing a few nests, in the northern
counties of Sutherland and Inverness, described by Mr. St.
John, in visiting one of which Mr. Wolley nearly lost his
life. Some years passed, and it came to be believed among
naturalists that the Osprey as a native bird had been
thoroughly rooted out; but, in ‘ The Ib is ’ for 1865, Mr.
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