64 PANDION HALI^ETUS. 



preserver, he swam off, leaving the other end in charge of a man on 

 shore. On the island he tied the rope to a stone and climbed up the 

 ruins, slipping about in six inches of snow. Having found two eggs in 

 the nest, he discovered that he had left his cap behind him. He tried 

 one egg in his mouth, but could not breathe with it; and at last he swam 

 ashore on his back with an egg in each hand, the man pulling him 

 with the cord. He blew the eggs in the boat-house, washing out the 

 inside with whisky. He had taken these eggs for four years, and 

 the old birds have always had a second brood. The first or second 

 year an old woman saw him come out of the water, and ran into the 

 cottage ; since then he has always gone earlier in the morning, and 

 no one has known anything about it. He was exceedingly anxious 

 that I should go early one morning and see him take the other egg 

 or eggs out of the nest for me ; but, considering my position there, I 

 declined — the more so as I suspected the proprietress protected the 

 birds ; and I have been since assured that there was a man appointed 

 on purpose to take care of them. After I had finally refused his 

 ofier, he mentioned incidentally that Mr. R. Gordon-Cumming had 

 got into a great scrape for harrying this nest some years before. 

 The day after I got these eggs, Mr. Edge and I went to the loch ; 

 we got to the side of it most distant from the castle, but we saw 

 the head of the Osprey on the nest looking about it in every direc- 

 tion. The cottage was just beyond the castle, from where we were. 

 We then came back round the loch ; and as we got near, the bird rose 

 and left the nest, which was now very conspicuous; but she soon 

 lighted on it again, and settled herself down. The wind was bitterly 

 cold, and it was constantly snowing and hailing. I made a sketch 

 of the place * ; and whilst I was doing so the cock bird came up and 

 alighted on an adjoining part of the Avail, first putting down his long 

 claws. The distance of the castle from the shore might be one 

 hundred and twenty yards : the old doorway was on a level with the 

 water ; but the whole loch was then somewhat dammed up by a kind 

 of weir. At one time both the birds were flying at once. We went 

 to the house, and saw the old woman before mentioned, who told us 

 that one morning, several years before, she saw " a chieP " coming out 

 of the water, who had been to the nest. In the old castle was born, 

 we were told, the first Marquis of Huntly. 



§ 84. Three. — Inverness-shire, 8 May, 1852. 



These three eggs from a nest on the same loch as those last men- 

 tioned. My correspondent wrote to me as follows: — "The three 

 ' [From this sketch, Mr. Jury has executed the plate (tab. II). — Ed.] 



