AMERICAN OSPREY 359 



these old stubs, which resist decay for many years, even when stand- 

 ing in water, offer ideal nesting sites. 



In Florida I have seen many nests in such locations, as well as in 

 tall pine trees; most of the nests in pines range from 25 to 70 feet 

 from the ground, but Mr. Nicholson tells me that he has seen them 

 as high as 110 feet. In southern Florida, they often nest in low 

 mangroves, 15 to 20 feet above the water, according to Mr. Pennock. 

 Among the Florida Keys I once saw a nest built on the tops of some 

 little low mangroves, with its base only a few inches above the water ; 

 we could look into it from a boat. 



Mr. Skinner's notes mention some interesting nests in the Yellow- 

 stone National Park. One of the most famous nests is on "Eagle 

 Nest Kock", a lofty pinnacle in Gardner Canyon; he says that this 

 has been occupied — 



each year since 1875 at least, but one spring I found as many as seven 

 adult osprey in its immediate vicinity. * * * The nests at Eagle Nest 

 Hock and in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone are on the tips of pin- 

 nacles of rock jutting out from the canyon slopes. As these are usually 

 the only nests seen by visitors, they unconsciously form the opinion that all 

 osprey nests are on rock pinnacles. 



But this is not true, even for the majority of the Yellowstone osprey, for 

 the original and most used sites are on the tips of dead trees, and on the 

 tips of living lodgepole pine and spruce trees. In 1914, I estimated there were 

 25 nests in the Grand Canyon ; adding in the Eagle Nest Rock site and all 

 others there may be 30 rock pinnacle sites in Yellowstone National Park that 

 are occupied by osprey nests. But there are twice as many tree sites as that 

 around Yellowstone Lake alone. 



He says he has seen the nests "floored with cedar bark. Often 

 these osprey added a rim of green pine tips to their nest. In each 

 case it looked like a large wreath of green laid on the nest floor, 

 surrounding the eggs and sitting bird." 



Bendire (1892) writes: 



The most picturesque nesting site of the Osprey I ever saw was located 

 in the midst of the American Falls of Snake Biver, Idaho. Right on the 

 very brink of these, and about one-third of the way across, the seething 

 volume of water, confined here between frowning walls of basalt, was cleft 

 in twain by a rocky obstruction which had so far withstood the ever eroding 

 currents, and this was capped with a slender and fairly tapering column of 

 rock rising directly out of the swirling and foaming whirlpool below. On the 

 top of this natural monument, whose apex appeared to me to be scarcely 

 2 feet wide, a pair of Ospreys had placed their nest and were rearing their 

 young amidst the never ceasing roar of the falls directly below them. 



About the inland lakes of California the favorite nesting sites 

 seem to be the broken tops of dead pine trees, sometimes standing 

 in or near the water and sometimes several miles from it; some of 

 these are very lofty, 75 to 112 feet from the ground and often in- 

 accessible. But on the coastal islands, where there are no large 



