A Long Lease of a Nesting Station 253 
is the best proof of their general immunity from attack. On 
the homeward voyage from Egypt in the summer of 1885 con- 
sequent on our withdrawal from the Soudan, I chanced to mention 
the Ospreys, and, as is so frequent when ordinary well-ascer- 
tained facts of natural history are told to the uninitiated, was 
chaffed a good deal when I asserted that without doubt we should 
see the Ospreys on their nest when we passed the Rock. The 
affair ended in the captain of our transport good-naturedly altering 
his course and steaming in close under the point. Every glass was 
directed on the nest and much was the jubilation at its being 
apparently empty, until the old bird suddenly rose from off her 
young and standing up showed her white breast to the Camel Corps 
of unbelievers! 
From time to time some thoughtless gunner has shot one of 
these beautiful birds. I know of five instances in the last thirty- 
three years, and of course there may be others, but the bereaved 
bird soon finds another mate and all goes on as before. No doubt 
there is an inexhaustible supply of eligible young Ospreys, male 
and female, to be obtained from the opposite coast of Africa. On 
that side there is usually an Osprey’s nest wherever there are any 
bold headlands or sea-cliffs. I have seen three nests on one head- 
land within a few hundred yards of one another. Here they are 
reasonably safe, for, owing to the heavy swell which sets in, landing 
is often impossible, and in addition Ospreys, unlike so many Eagles, 
seem to appreciate the advantages of selecting awkward cliffs as 
nesting stations. Also, entirely apart from the present disturbed 
condition of Morocco, some of these nests are on parts of the coast 
where Europeans have never been welcomed and in consequence 
have very rarely been visited. 
Many writers have described the structure of the Osprey’s foot ; 
how the better to secure its fishy prey the outer toe is reversible 
so that the foot can be either used, when perching, with three toes 
