60 PANDION HALI^ETUS. 



habitant could recollect, and, from the difficulty of access, the loch 

 being so deep and the island so far from the shore, could not be got 

 at but by a good swimmer. I swam to it, and got the eggs." 



[Of the remaining two eggs sent by Mr. Dunbar to Mr. Wolley, one, taken 

 20tli May, 1848, was given to tlie late Mr. J. D. Salmon ; tbe otber, taken 

 25th May, 1848, is in Mr. Osbert Sahdn's Collection. I cannot find that Mr. 

 Wolley visited any one of these nests, though he was in their immediate 

 neighbourhood.] 



§ 82. 7%ree.— Sutherlandshire, 5 May, 1849. " J. W. i^se." 



O. W. tab. vii. fig. 2. 



Now the forester, having carefully extinguished the fire at which 

 I had been warming my Golden Eaglets [§ 26], marched for a loch 

 where he said the " Fishing Gled " always built, and where last year 

 it was robbed by a gentleman in a boat. (It appears from Mr. St. 

 John's ' Tour in Sutherlandshire,^ i. p. 89, that Mr. Dunbar took a 

 young one and an egg out of the nest, leaving the old Ospreys un- 

 disturbed.) The forester pointed out the wrong rock ; but with the 

 glass I readily distinguished on another, of conical shape, the nest, 

 and the head of the bird upon it. After a round of a mile or two we 

 reached the nearest point to it. I saw the white head of the bird, 

 which almost immediately stood up, and then took to flight. It 

 made a turn, and uttered a musical kind of cry. The forester was 

 sure it had eggs. I was thinly clad, and had been alternately hot and 

 cold during the day, in the valley or on the mountain; but I was 

 determined to swim to the nest, in spite of the remonstrances of the 

 forester and of my men, none of whom could do so. Luckily, another 

 of them arrived in time for me to use the string as I had intended ; 

 for, as I was getting chilled by the wind, I could not have waited. 

 I immediately stripped, put on the belt, which turned out a very 

 inefficient assistance, and tied the string to the nozzle of it in front. 

 Lord Derby's little basket ^ being fastened by a string behind me. 

 After the first dip, it was so cold that I all but came out again. 

 But I determined not to recede ; so on I went, making good way till 

 I came to the first ridge of rocks, some of which were under water. 

 By this time I was very cold, and becoming exhausted. Just as I 

 reached the first rock under water the string was checked, being, as I 

 supposed, come to an end. Knowing how a second plunge, after 

 being on land, would chill me, I almost turned to swim back ; for I 

 feared they would let go the string rather than pull me back, when it 



' [See page 28, note. — Ed.] 



