Dan Meinertzhagen's Diary. S6 



the nest, and had not seen us, and wondering 

 what was up, had flown up from the lake, 

 looked into the nest, and sailed round over the 

 tops of the trees, when he fell to Hornby's gun. 

 The poor bird was only winged and defied us 

 courageously. It seemed an awful shame to 

 kill this bird with all his feathers on end, 

 looking the picture of health and strength. The 

 next thing was to procure the eggs. We had 

 brought with us a wonderful climber. The 

 tree was an enormous pine, and he could 

 scarcely get his arms half way round, but he 

 managed it, and after about ten minutes pulling 

 away at the nest (these nests are so big, one 

 can't get one's arms round them), he announced 

 *' kolme monat" (three eggs), and let them 

 down in a stocking at the end of a rope ; and 

 lovely eggs they were, two of them unlike any 

 I had got before. This is the fifth clutch I have 

 taken up here. The nest was placed on an 

 enormous pine, half-way up the side of a hill, 

 overlooking the lake Nilimaajarvi. The bottom 

 of the tree was strewn with sticks from the 

 nest. All the Ospreys' nests I have seen up 

 here, and I've seen a good many, including old 

 ones, are always placed on the very top of a 

 large pine, not always near the water. The 

 base of the trunk of a tree holding a last year's 



