62 PANDION HALIiEETUS. 



" Worse than an Eagle's nest." When they had dressed me, and 

 taken the eggs ont of my hand, I started running to recover my 

 circulation ; but my legs were insensible, and I soon dropped in the 

 long heather. Fortunately I saw the forester passing near me, and 

 gave him a hail. The others came up and held me on each side. 

 They got me across several streams, and at length into a good road a 

 few hundred yards from the house where we were expected. Here, 

 with the assistance of a good fire and three or four tumblers of toddy, 

 I was soon all right. We all chatted over the day. The forester 

 wished to take me to one or two Eagles' nests ; and named a loch to 

 the north-west, where the Osprey built, and other places for it in the 

 parish. He said that here its eggs were more thought of than Eagle's. 

 The ones I took were quite fresh. 



The following day I took the son of my landlord to walk -, and our 

 steps naturally bent towards the Osprey's nest, which is probably 

 the one from which, the year before, Mr. Dunbar took three young 

 ones, and Mr. St. John, as he himself relates in his book (Tour in 

 Sutherlandshire, i. pp. 90-93), shot the old male. Just after leaving 

 the house, I had a good view of an Osprey hovering over the bay and 

 stream, with Gulls persecuting it. In hovering, it moved its wings 

 rather slowly, but it more frequently sailed motionless like a Kite. 

 We turned along the south side of the bay till we came to some 

 houses, where we got a little lad to take us to two lochs, one of Avhich 

 the forester mentioned to me the day before. My guide, who called 

 the bird in Gaelic " Allan-y asker ^," soon brought us to one of them ; 

 and there was the rock, about a hundred yards from the bank. The 

 direction is not, as Mr. St. John says {loc. cit.), north-west from 

 E-hiconnich, nor do I remember such high rocks as he describes or 

 figures in his engraving (at p. 105). The nest was on the south-west 

 side of a large stone, loose, or apparently so ; and its level was on a 

 line with the top of the stone. BeloAV the nest was some turf and 

 grass, and a little shrub growing. It seemed very compact, like an 

 ants', and at the top was much moss; but disordered, as if not 

 touched since last year. The landing appeared to be perfectly easy. 

 The stone looked from the bank to be about five feet high. The nest 

 seemed to be made of sticks, mixed up with fine turf-soil, and appa- 

 rently a little heather amongst it. Neither I nor the boys could 

 reach it with a stone. Just as we were leaving it I heard a musical 

 cry, which I did not at first recognize as that of the Osprey ; how- 

 ever, it turned out to be so, and the bird flew round the loch, afraid 

 to light on the nest. At the larger loch, near a little isthmus leading 

 ' [Corrupted no doubt from " lolair-an-uisg'e," Eap'le of the Water. — Ed.] 



