122 PANDION HALIAETUS. 



Propagation. — The mode of nestling adopted by 

 the Osprey in this country is little known, although 

 several authors write as if they were well acquainted 

 with it. I have never seen its nest. Montagu saw 

 one on the top of a chimney of a ruin, in an island on 

 Loch- Lomond. It was large, flat, formed of sticks laid 

 across, so as to rest on the sides of the chimney, and lined 

 with flags. The eggs, according to Mr Audubon, are 

 three or four in number, of a broadly oval form, yel- 

 lowish-white, densely covered with large irregular spots 

 of reddish-brown ; this description agreeing with the 

 drawing of an egg which I have seen in his posses- 

 sion. The descriptions of M. Temminck and Mr Selby 

 are similar. An egg of this bird, supposed to be Scot- 

 tish, to which I have access, is two inches and four- 

 twelfths in length, one inch and ten-twelfths in its 

 greatest breadth ; of a short ovate form, with the nar- 

 row end much rounded ; white, with large irregular 

 blotches of dark greenish-brown, and numerous small 

 spots of light brownish-grey. Dr Fleming says the 

 eggs are three or four, " white, and elliptical." If 

 so, the Scottish Osprey may be of a different species 

 from the American ; but the statements of compilers 

 cannot be considered worthy of confidence when the 

 original authorities are not mentioned ; and, in all pro- 

 bability, the learned and industrious collector, if he 

 has ever seen hawks' eggs white and elliptical, must 

 have mistaken those of the buzzard or kite, which are 

 sometimes white, for those of the Osprey. It is more 

 likely, however, that, as usual, he has taken this de- 

 scription from Willughby, whose statement and his run 

 thus: 



