52 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



a few years ago, but now has ceased to frequent even 

 these ancient strongholds. It is no exaggeration to say 

 that it is owing to two factors, and to two factors alone, 

 that the Fishing Eagle has failed to hold its own within 

 our confines. These factors are, the migratory instinct 

 of the birds, and the large remuneration given by mis- 

 guided collectors for British-taken eggs of the Osprey. 

 Neither cause, I think, would of itself have been sufhcient 

 to banish the Osprey, but against the two combined it 

 has had little chance of struggling successfully. 



After the close of the nesting season, and on the ap- 

 proach of the cold weather, the Osprey is in the habit of 

 leaving its native loch and making its way south. A 

 supply of food in northern waters is no doubt difficult to 

 procure during the winter months, for the trout and 

 other fish seek the depths of the lochs, where the Osprey 

 cannot penetrate. Besides this, the Fishing Eagle is a 

 comparatively thin-skinned bird, and is thus less fitted to 

 withstand the cold than its second cousin, the Golden 

 Eagle. The Eagle makes its home among the hills and 

 glens summer and winter, and is still common enough 

 if one knows the corries to search ; the Osprey forsakes 

 the shelter of the hills, and is on the point of extinction. 



Some years ago a pair of Ospreys were shot on the 

 river Avon in Hampshire. The birds were on migration 

 at the time, and were probably making their way from 

 some Scottish loch to their southern winter quarters. 

 It is possible that they were the pair from far-distant 

 Loch an Eilan — at all events, the loch is nowadays 

 deserted. On Loch an Eilan the Osprey had its eyrie in 

 earlier times on the ruined castle still bidding defiance to 

 the storms and situated on a small island not more than 

 a hundred yards from the mainland. I did not, unfortu- 

 nately, know the loch when it gave the Ospreys their 

 nesting site, but their former home may still be made out 



