268 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



denly expanding its wings and gently inclining its body 

 upward. 



The nest of the osprey possesses little external beauty. 

 The mass of sticks, twigs, and various sorts of rubbish is 

 piled together with a view to service and durability. The 

 structure is lined with twigs, grass, bark, sea- weed, corn- 

 stalks, and other available materials. The owners fre- 

 quently repair their home in the fall, that the structure 

 may more readily withstand the blasts of winter, though 

 the work of repairing is done principally in the spring. 

 No particular sort of tree is favored for sites, but the 

 great desideratum is safety, and to this end the height 

 of the nest from the ground varies from low situations to 

 eighty and ninety feet. Sometimes in localities where the 

 birds are not disturbed the nests are placed on the ground, 

 and in swampy regions they are situated on low bushes 

 as well as in the highest and most inaccessible positions. 

 Nests in the woods are generally situated nearer the 

 ground than nests in open localities, the birds having 

 evidently learned that their homes in open sites attract 

 more attention and are more likely to be disturbed than 

 nests in swamps and woods. 



Sometimes the birds become so familiar that they make 

 their habitations on the chimneys of rural residences, and 

 an instance is recorded of a nest on the cross-piece of a 

 telegraph pole. Some farmers are not unwilling to have 

 these birds nest on their premises, and others even resent 

 the molestation of the nests, though they may destroy the 

 habitations of other rapacious birds. They regard the 

 ospreys as their friends, for occasionally the birds pick up 

 small snakes and vermin about the farm, and are perfectly 

 harmless and friendly to other birds and the poultry. 



It is no easy undertaking to get into a nest of the 

 osprey, even after the site has been reached, for the spread- 

 ing border of the mass juts so far over its base that care, 

 dexterity, and judgment are essential qualifications of the 

 successful climber. The trees containing the nests are 

 generally dead, or die more quickly after they are chosen 

 as sites, for the salt water soaked into the materials has- 

 tens the death of the trees, and also causes the rapid dis- 

 integration of the foundation. The usual complement 



