OSPREY. 57 
lakes, the wild mountain-waters teeming with trout, or the lochs and the 
seacoast where an abundant supply of food is ever obtainable. 
Like most raptorial birds, the Osprey, when its meal is finished, takes 
its perch, usually on some post in the water or tree-stump on the bank, 
where it sits, seemingly unconscious of danger, to digest its meal, and 
where it is easily approached, its curious appearance and large size proving 
but allurements to its doom, which is duly recorded in the county paper. 
These birds, if they have the rare fortune to be left unmolested, will 
sometimes prolong their stay until the summer; but no instance is on 
record where the Osprey has been known to breed in England or 
Wales. 
The habits of the Osprey, in certain respects, much resemble those of 
the Kestrel. Dixon describes a bird of this species which he saw searching 
for prey on the head waters of Loch Carron in Inverness-shire. “It was 
about thirty feet above the surface of the water, hovering with quivering 
wings, and ever and anon giving a few rapid beats, as if to steady itself. 
It slowly searched the shallow waters near the shore, hovering and sailing 
alternately, just like our well-known Windhover in the meadows. Finally 
it poised itself for a moment, and dropped down like a stone into the 
water, the noise of its plunge being distinctly audible more than a quarter 
of a mile away. Rising in a few seconds, it again for a short time 
hovered above the surface, and then finally retired, in slow Buzzard-like 
flight, towards a distant clump of timber, but whether successful in its 
exertions we are unable to say.’ “I have watched,” says Booth, in his 
interesting ‘ Rough Notes,’ when speaking on the habits of the Osprey 
on our English waters, “one or two, while searching for flounders in the 
muddy creeks on Breydon Water, following the course of the channels, 
and fishing in exactly the same manner that Gulls may be noticed when 
picking up the floating refuse in a tideway, the only difference being that 
a Gull seizes the food with his beak, while an Osprey grasps it in his claws. 
The thickness of the water renders it impossible for any fish to be detected 
at a depth below the surface ; flounders, however, may frequently be seen 
working their way close to the edge of the stream; and from the manner 
in which the birds proceeded, I have not the slightest doubt they were in 
pursuit of this description of fish. After hovering round for a second or 
two, I have noticed one dip down close to the mudbank, and, although 
appearing scarcely to have touched the water, sail off to some quiet spot, 
where it could leisurely devour its prey, a favourite resting-place in that 
locality being the sweeps of an old mill standing within a short distance 
of the flats, from which a good view of approaching danger might be 
obtained. Mullet are very plentiful in the upper parts of Breydon Water ; 
and to these the Osprey is stated to be particularly partial when observed 
in the south of England.” 
