130 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



bird : the varied light and dark of its plumage, the large 

 dark gleaming eye, the handsome, alert pose, the wide-spread 

 wing, broad fan-tail, and powerful, easy flight all mark it 

 as a bird of noble type, and make it very attractive and 

 charming. Certainly its presence at Loch-an-Eilein gives 

 the crowning touch to the beauties of that place ; and, should 

 the bird not come, one feels its absence as that of an intimate 

 friend, and wishes the words of one of our minor poets were 



true : 



King Pandion is not dead ; 



Loch-an-Eilein to this day 

 Sees each year his wings outspread, 



Hails his coming, owns his sway. 



In "The Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray Basin," 1895, 

 Mr. Harvie-Brown gave a summary of the history of the 

 Loch-an-Eilein Ospreys up to that date ; and I purpose here 

 to supplement his records from notes made by me from that 

 time to this, premising, however, that my jottings are merely 

 those of a holiday-maker, and not the records of a professed 

 naturalist. 



I first saw the Ospreys in August, 1894. I was staying 

 for that month at Loch-an-Eilein Gate, and had many 

 opportunities of seeing the birds, either when I went for a 

 morning swim in the loch, or in the afternoons, which were 

 often spent at the loch side. When I was in the water the 

 bird would fly above me, uttering its screaming cry. I was 

 at first somewhat apprehensive of attack, but afterwards 

 came to regard the flight of the calling bird as adding 

 pleasure to the morning swim. 



That year the birds had nested at the castle, and hatched 

 two young ones. I saw the parent bird, presumably the 

 female, feed the young with fish, and noted the gradual 

 growth in the strength of voice of the young birds. On 

 August 24th I saw one of the young birds make its first 

 flight, and the other one trying its wings without rising from 

 the nest. The next morning all the birds were flying. 

 There was but one on the nest when I went to the loch 

 just after 7 A.M., and that one at once rose and flew away. 

 On August 26th, in the forenoon, three birds, I suppose the 

 mother and her two young ones, were flying about near the 



