OS PREY. 215 



and the quiet lakes sleep calmly in their setting of green- 

 black firs. In our islands the Osprcy is too rare to be 

 gregarious or social ; but in North America, where it is 

 a very abundant species, great numbers of birds frequently 

 live in colonies. The Osprey appears to pair for life, 

 and yearly to return to its old breeding-place, some of 

 its eyries having been occupied time out of mind. At 

 the present day, in the Highlands, the Osprey usually 

 makes its nest on the flat top of a pine tree, but 

 formerly it just as frequently selected a battlement 

 or chimney of some ruin, generally on an island. The 

 nest is an immense pile of sticks, as much as four feet 

 high and as many broad — the accumulation of many 

 years — intermixed with turf and other vegetable matter, 

 lined with finer twigs and finally with grass, much of it 

 often green. The cavity containing the eggs is about 

 twelve inches across and somewhat shallow. The Osprey 

 is a light sitter, usually leaving the nest long before it is 

 very closely approached. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Osprey are usually two or three in 

 number, sometimes as many as four, and remarkably 

 handsome. They vary in ground colour from white to 

 pale buff, very boldly and richly blotched, and spotted 

 with deep reddish-brown, and with underl3'ing markings 

 of violet-gray. Some varieties are so heavily marked 

 that all trace of ground colour is concealed on the larger 

 end of the egg ; other varieties are suffused with a purple 

 or reddish-orange shade ; others have bold irregular 

 blotches here and there over the entire surface, or princi- 

 pally distributed in a zone round either end, or round 

 the middle ; whilst others, yet again, are speckled and 

 spotted with pale orange-red and violet-gray. Some 

 are handsomely blotched with chestnut-red and blurred 

 with gray. Average measurement, 2 '3 inches in length, 



