.10 FALCON ID^. 



farther south, not perhaps so much on account of cold as 

 because its ordinary prey being driven to seek a genial 

 climate, it is compelled to accompany its food. Con- 

 sequently it is more abundant in Scotland during winter 

 than summer, and when seen late in autumn is generally 

 observed to be flying south, in early spring northwards. 

 It builds its nest either in forests, choosing the summit 

 of the loftiest trees, or among inaccessible cliffs over- 

 hanging the sea. The materials are sticks, heath, tufts 

 of grass, dry sea-weed, and it lays two eggs. The young 

 are very voracious, and are fed by the parent birds for 

 some time after they have left the nest, but when able 

 to provide for themselves are driven from the neighbour- 

 hood to seek food and a home elsewhere. 



THE OSPREY. 



PANDION HALIAETUS. 



Wings longer than the tail ; feathers of the head and neck white, with dark 

 centres ; on each side of the neck a streak of blackish brown, extending doAvn- 

 wards ; upper plumage generally deep brown ; under white, tinged here and 

 there with yellow, and on the breast marked with arrow-shaped spots ; tail- 

 feathers barred with dusky bands ; cere and beak dark gi-ey ; iris yellow. 

 Length, two feet ; breadth, five feet. Eggs reddish white, blotched and 

 spotted with dark reddish brown. 



"Endowed with intense keenness of sight, it hovers high 

 in the air, and having descried a fish in the sea, it darts 

 down with great rapidity, dashes aside the water with its 

 body, and seizes its prey in an instant." So says the 

 ancient naturalist Pliny, describing a bird which he 

 calls Haliaetus, or Sea-Eagle. Eighteen centuries later, 

 Montagu thus described a bird, which, when he first 

 observed it, was hawking for fish on the river Avon, near 

 Aveton Gilford, in Devonshire : " At last," he says, " its 

 attention was arrested, and like the Kestril in search of 

 mice, it became stationary, as if examining what had 



