74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



which is in a great measure contrary to that of the Golden Eagle, 

 is occasioned by the scarcity of their favourite food. Probably 

 their journeyings southward are much influenced by the migra- 

 tions of the fish along our coasts, as well as the fact that rabbits, 

 of which they are specially fond, and which inhabit the islands 

 on the north and west coasts, keep more to their burrows during 

 the winter. 



OSPEEY. 



PAN DION HALIAETUS {Unnaeus), 



Such a sight as that witnessed by Sir W. Jardine's party, in 

 1834, at the mouth of the river Laxford — viz., four Ospreys on 

 the wing and in sight at the same time, hovering over the shoals 

 of salmon as they ascended the stream, is seldom or never 

 witnessed in the county now, though, when Ospreys are seen, I 

 believe this locality is still a favourite haunt. The pair of birds 

 so often alluded to in works on British Ornithology,* and which 

 had their nest on the summit of the ruins of Aardvraak Castle, 

 on Loch Assynt, used regularly, as I am informed by one who had 

 often seen them, to frequent a shallow sandy bay at the south-east 

 end of the loch, and might be seen on such occasions plunging 

 after their finny prey, and bearing it off to their then undisturbed 

 nesting place. I am not an antiquarian, nor given at all to 

 archaeological pursuits, so may be pardoned for saying that, with 

 the disappearance of the Osprey, the gloiy has departed from the 

 ruins of Aardvraak. f 



PEEEGPJNE FALCOK 



FALCO PEREORINUS, Gmclin. 



This noble bird, the " Game Hawk " of the natives, and which 

 lowers not his proud head beneath the gaze of his so-called king, 



* Amongst others, vide "A Voyage round the Coasts of Scotland and the 

 Isles," by James Wilson, Vol. i., p. 334. He mentions that the Ospreys, in 

 1834, bred on a chimney of Calda House, another ruin contiguous to Aardvraak 

 Castle. I have been assured, however, that it was always upon Aardvraak 

 Castle that the nest was built, and the place has been pointed out by those 

 who well remember its existence. 



t The nest described by St. John, in his " Tour in Sutherland," Vol. i., p. 37, 

 as belonging to this species, was really that of a White-tailed Eagle. Vide 

 Ootheca Wolleyana, Part i., p. 45. 



