HISTORY OF THE LOCH AN EILEIN OSPREYS 149 



uiuuidw, parasitic on a Munida bamffica dredged in the 

 Minch. Other records add considerably to our knowledge of 

 the range of distribution of well-known species. 



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BRARYi 



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HISTORY OF THE LOCH AN EILEIN OSPREYS. 1 



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By C. G. Cash, F.R.S.G.S. 



In July 1903 I had articles in the Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History and in the Cairngorm Club Journal, giving an 

 account of my observations of the Loch an Eilein Ospreys 

 from 1894 to 1903. I little thought then that I was perhaps 

 writing the requiem of these noble birds, but it is the 

 regrettable fact that Ospreys have not revisited Loch an 

 Eilein since that time, and some of our best ornithologists 

 are beginning to fear that the bird may be lost to our fauna. 

 There was a vague rumour, which I have not been able to trace 

 to any definite source, that Ospreys were somewhere in the 

 neighbourhood of the Cairngorms in 1906, and that their 

 nest was robbed ; but enquiries made then and since have 

 quite failed to bring me any confirmation of the story. 



The early history of the Loch an Eilein Ospreys is mainly 

 contained in Harvie-Brown's Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray 

 Basin, 1895, but there are also occasional references to the 

 birds in other published writings. Unfortunately, not a little 

 of the information supplied to Harvie-Brown suffers from 

 vagueness, inaccuracy, and confusion, and so his story is not 

 as satisfactory as could be wished. I propose to attempt 

 here a chronological analysis of what is known as to the 



1 This is a reprint, with slight additions, of an Article by the Author 

 which appeared in the Cairngorm Journal for July 1907. It seems 

 desirable to give it a wider circulation in view of correspondence which 

 has recently taken place in the Zoologist and elsewhere as to the 

 causes which have led to the disappearance of the Osprey from its 

 breeding haunts in Scotland. Eds. 



