398 FALCON AND EAGLE GROUP 



surfaces of the toes are covered with sharp conical tubercles for the 

 purpose of aiding in the retention of the slippery pre\'. 



The usual discrepancy as to dimensions is noticeable when different 

 ornithological works are compared, one writer fixing the length of 

 the female as 24, a second as 23, and a third as 2 2 inches ; while 

 one makes a difference of 3 inches in the size of the two sexes, 

 whereas another states that the cock is only slightly smaller than his 

 mate. The most conspicuous feature of the species is the white head 

 and nape of the neck, which are streaked with brown, and the former 

 marked by a dark stripe extending backwards on each side from the . 

 beak across the ear-coverts to the latter ; the remainder of the upper- 

 parts are umber- brown shot witii purple, the tail being, however, 

 barred above with paler brown and below with whitish, these bars 

 tending to disappear in old birds ; the under-parts are white, interrupted 

 by a band of dark spots across the upper part of the breast ; the 

 beak and legs are blue, and the eyes- yellow. The hen is said to be 

 distinguishable by the darker colour of the breast-band. In immature 

 birds the feathers of the upper-parts have pale edges, and the barrings 

 on the tail are more distinct. The downy nestling is sooty brown 

 above, with a band of dull white along the back and the margin of the 

 wings, and white beneath. 



The origin of the name osprey, or ospray, is not known with certainty, 

 although it is supposed by a great authority to be a corruption of 

 " ossifrage " (bone-breaker), a title properly belonging to the bearded 

 vulture or lammcrgeier. The term "osprey" now applied in the 

 feather-trade to the lovely white breeding-plumes of the egret, appears 

 to be a corruption of their French name, esprit. 



The distribution of the osprey is almost world-wide ; and the bird 

 may be found either on the coast, on estuaries, on rivers, or on large 

 inland sheets of water. It should, however, be mentioned that by 

 some writers the American and the Australian osprexs are regarded 

 as distinct species ; but if separable at all, they do not appear worthy 

 of more than racial or subspecific rank. In the northern hemisphere 

 ospreys breed so far north as Lapland and Japan, and so far south 

 as the Red Sea, but to India the>- are mainly winter-visitors, although 

 they breed in the Himalaya. The nesting-season ranges from the 

 middle of April to the early part of June ; eggs in the British Museum 

 collection having been taken in various parts of Europe at dates 

 ranging from April 24 to June 8. 



A single egg in the above-named collection attests, if rightl\- 

 labelled, the former breeding of this handsome bird in England ; 



