THE OSPREY 117 



with quivering wings, alternated with rapid beats, 

 as is so often the way of our better-known Kestrel. 

 Finally we watched it poise for a moment and 

 drop down, Gannet-like, into the water, the noise 

 as it struck the surface being distinctly audible 

 from the shore. The bird rose again in a few 

 seconds, and slowly retired to a distant clump of 

 trees, but whether it had caught a fish or not we 

 were unable to determine. In its search for prey 

 the Osprey is very Gull-like, but of course seizes 

 its food with its feet, and not with its bill. This 

 food is composed of fish, such as trout, roach, 

 bream, shad, flounders, etc. These are always 

 captured with the feet, the soles of which are 

 very rough, and the long claws exceptionally 

 sharp. The note of the Osprey has been described 

 as kai-kai-kai, and when alarmed the bird is said 

 to utter a harsh scream. 



The Osprey most probably pairs for life, and 

 returns to one locality to breed year after year. 

 In the Highlands nowadays the nest is generally 

 made on the broad flat top of a pine tree, but 

 formerly it was as frequently placed on ruins or 

 rocks on islands. The nest is an immense pile of 

 sticks, the accumulation of years, perhaps as much 

 as four feet high and as many broad, intermixed 



