ii8 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



with turf and lined with green grass. Sometimes 

 several nests are made in one locality, and used 

 in turn. The two or three eggs are very handsome, 

 white or pale buff in ground colour, heavily blotched 

 and spotted — sometimes so densely as to conceal 

 the pale ground — 'with rich reddish brown, orange 

 brown, and grey. But one brood is reared in the 

 season. It is said that the Osprey will savagely 

 attack an intruder of its nest. Professor Newton 

 says that men and boys have had their heads gashed 

 with the sharp claws of the enraged parent bird. 

 In North America as many as three hundred 

 nests have been found in trees close together. 



The Osprey has the head and nape white, 

 streaked with brown, some of the feathers being 

 elongated. The general colour of the rest of the 

 upper parts is dark brown, occasionally shot with 

 purple ; the under parts are white, except a band 

 of brown spots across the breast. The female is 

 similar to the male in colour, but she is slightly 

 larger, and the head and breast are more marked 

 with brown. Young birds resemble the female 

 in colour. The total length of the Osprey is 

 about twenty-three inches. 



