THE OSPREY 53 



from the mainland, though the winds from the high hills 

 have partially demolished the nest, except the fomida- 

 tions, which still remain. It was on a wild January day 

 that a friend and I rowed over to the castle and inspected 

 the disused eyrie. The nest was composed of sticks of 

 various sizes, and from what I could see must, in the days 

 of its use, have closely resembled a Golden Eagle's eyrie. 

 It had evidently been a structure of considerable size, 

 and, indeed, one which was weighed turned the scale at 

 four hundred pounds ! 



From her nest the Osprey had one of Scotland's finest 

 views. At the time of our visit a sou'- westerly gale had 

 removed the snow from the lower grounds, but on Cairn- 

 gorm to the east it still lay deep, covering the higher 

 slopes of the hill with an unbroken mantle. On the sum- 

 mit the force of the gale was such that snow was being 

 drifted across the hill-top in dense clouds, though lower 

 down the " fresh " of the earlier part of the day followed 

 by frost had formed an icy cake to the snow, preventing 

 the wind from scattering the particles before it. Across 

 the loch white-tipped waves were being hurried, and in 

 the pines fringing the water the wind was passing with 

 that characteristic sound — as the breaking of surf upon 

 a distant shore. One could not but feel a sense of regret 

 that the birds of prey had been banished — it is to be feared 

 for ever — from their loch. 



Year after year, before April was many days old, the 

 Ospreys used to arrive at Loch an Eilan, untired after 

 their long journey from the far-distant Mediterranean, 

 where they had spent the winter in summer sunshine, 

 fishing in a sea of deep azure blue. For long the Ospreys 

 held their own, and a pair, probably their children, con- 

 structed a nest in a Scots fir on the shore of Loch Mhor- 

 lich, the tree being, I believe, known as Craobh na h'lolaire 

 (the Eagle's Tree). 



