256 The Osprey 
Wherever Ospreys are to be found, there is no bird which lends 
itself better to watching when engaged in search of its food, since 
unlike other raptorial birds in pursuit of their quarry amid hills 
and woodland, it ever hunts in the open where there is nothing 
to obstruct a view of its actions. 
I have met with it up tidal estuaries, where it pursues the 
same tactics as when at sea, but with the difference that in place of 
dropping like a stone on to its prey it sweeps down and, after the 
manner of a Gull fishing, lightly dips into the water and as 
quickly mounts again. Of course, in such places many of the small 
fish are in extremely shallow waters over the mud-beds and sand- 
banks, where a vigorous dive might mean annihilation, 
The Osprey is usually credited with selecting as a nesting-place 
some situation dangerous of access, and I must admit that the 
statement, from my own experience, is correct, and that as a rule 
where the nest is not in a dangerous position it is only accessible by 
climbing, with or without the aid of ropes. Of course this does not 
apply to some of the nests on ruined buildings in the Scottish lochs, 
but to most of those one sees in sea-cliffs. 
The simplest nest to reach I ever saw was one placed on a small 
projecting rock only 12 ft. or 15 ft. below the crest of a limestone 
cliff, The nest was visible from above, but below it the cliff 
receded, with the result that there was a clear drop between it and 
the sea some 230 ft. below. However unreasonable it may seem, 
a nest in such a place as this is ever more alarming to look at than 
is one placed in some really dangerous place, since nothing is here 
required to reach it beyond good nerves and good ropes. This 
g 
nest contained three magnificently marked fresh eggs on 31 March, 
which is about the normal time for Ospreys to lay. 
This expedition was one of the many red-letter days of my 
ornithological life. The Ospreys’ stronghold was on a big detached 
rock some hundreds of yards from the mainland. All around it 
