294 



rAN'll|i.lNII),«. 



With the photo,t,'raph of the nest of the Osprey here reproduced, Mr. Chas. G. Gil)Son has 

 kindly sent me the toliowini^ notes from Western AustraHa : — " Tlie photograpli of a nest of 

 Paiidion IcuiOicplialus was taken on Pelsart island, Houtmann's Abrolhos, off Champion Bay, 

 Webtern Australia, nth November, 1907. Nests were seen on almost every island; on those 

 visited they were usually placed some distance back from the sea, in distinction from those of 

 the White-bellied Sea Eagle {Haliivtiis leiuof;asttr), which were placed right at the water's edge. 

 The nests varied in height from one foot to four feet, and were composed of all the odds and ends 

 available, and which could be picked up on the beach, viz., sticks, pieces of board, straw bottle 

 en\elopes, sponges, seaweed, cuttlefish, pieces of coral, etc., in fact anything and everything that 

 drifted on to the beach ; tops of nests were slightly hollowed and roughly ' lined' with a little 

 seaweed. Although the eggs are usually three in number, a full brood is apparently rarely 

 raised, as in no case were more than two young noted, and occasionally only one. At the time 



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i'3?! 





\VI11TE-I1K.\DEU OSPKEYS NEST ON I'EL.S.^liT I.SL.\NIJ, lluUT.M ANNS AlIROLHOS, WESTERN AUSTliALIA. 



of our visit in November the nests all either contained young of varying size or else the young 

 birds were flying about ; no eggs were obtained. The photograph is typical." 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson sends me the following notes from Tasmania: — " I have seen Pandion 

 Icitcoccpltalns in D'Entrecasteaux Channel, in the south-east, but nowhere else have I observed it. 

 On one occasion I remember an Osprey flying to a tree with a fish in its talons ; the bird was 

 shot at and flew away unhurt, but dropped the fish, which proved to be a fine mullet. I have 

 the eggs from King's Island, Bass Strait, so the bird must occur there." 



The eggs are usually three, occasionally only two, and rarely four in number for a sitting, 

 and are extremely variable in shape and disposition of their markings, even in the same set; 

 they vary from elongate-oval to thick and almost rounded-oval in form, some specimens gently 

 tapering towards the smaller end, but abruptly pointed examples are rare, the shell being 



