p. H. BAHR: HOME LIFE OF THE OSPREY. 21 



Being purely a fish-eater, the most important part of 

 the Osprey's clay's work consists in soaring over the deep 

 searching for his finny prey. The evenings and the early 

 mornings are the favourite times for this pursuit. Then 

 we would often observe some four or five circling round 

 together, often at no great height above the water. One 

 would make his mark, the great wings would close, and 

 down on to the water with a resounding splash the bird 

 would dro]3 and disappear from view, to rise a second or 

 so later with a silver fish, often, as we remarked with some 

 surprise, of no great size. Then, shaking the spray off 

 his plumage, he would slowly wend his way home. 



No hurry to deliver the result of the catch was evinced, 

 and a bird would sail round for hours in an aimless sort 

 of way with the fish grasped firmly by both feet round the 

 middle, the head and tail dangling downwards. The head 

 of the fish, we noticed, was always carried foremost, as 

 offering least resistance to the air. Small fisli would be 

 carried in one foot (vide Fig. 3), and I observed a bird 

 on one occasion change a fish from one foot to the 

 other during flight. If the fish being carried happened 

 to be a large one it seemed that it would be a difiicult 

 matter for the bird to settle on a telegraph post (a 

 favourite j)erch). This was, however, managed in a 

 perfectly simple way. The right foot, which was being 

 held behind the left, was suddenly brought forward and 

 grasped the post at the same time as tlie left, carrying the 

 fish, was brought on top witli quite an audible smack, and 

 thus the bird managed to balance itself upon the fish, and 

 again upon its support. 



The Osprey is not always fortunate in his fishing, 

 and failures are many. He does not always manage to 

 " strike " in time, and often emerges from a plunge 

 empty-handed . 



While lying in bed in our hut, on the edge of an inlet 

 of the sea, I could, in the early mornings, hear the Ospreys 

 plunging quite close ; splash after splash resomided, one 

 about every two minutes, But they were not always so 



