OSPREY. 61 
the ground-colour. Some examples are quite purple ; others are entirely 
suffused with orange-red; whilst a very beautiful variety has all the 
vacant spaces between the bold brown markings blurred and dashed 
with violet-grey shell-markings. Other specimens have a large blot of 
colour here and there over the entire surface, or have the colouring-matter 
in a zone or belt round the middle of the shell. Many examples are 
marked with smaller spots and streaks of colour, and marbled over the 
entire surface with violet-grey and faint orange-red. The eggs of the 
Osprey are rarely faintly or sparmgly marked, and justly claim to rank as 
some of the handsomest in all the British series. In form they are not so 
round as the true Falcon’s, and are also far more elongated than the typical 
Eagle’s, and are somewhat coarse in texture. They vary in length from 
2°5 to 2°15 inch, and in breadth from 1:95 to 1:75 inch. They are usually 
hatched by the end of May orearly in June. Like many other birds of prey, 
the female Osprey is not easily scared from the nest. During the period of 
incubation the male bird keeps close to the vicinity of the nest, and 
supplies the female with food; she has therefore but little cause to leave 
her charge, and only does so for very short intervals. The young are fed 
by both parents until they are fully able to provide for themselves; and 
even when they are able to leave the nest they keep in their parents’ 
company for some little time, the old birds still supplyimg them with food. 
When they are strong upon the wing they will still haunt the place of 
their birth, probably till the migratory period arrives, and roost at night 
upon the old nest. But one brood is reared in the season. 
The plumage of the head and nape is white, broadly streaked with brown, 
some of the feathers being elongated. The whole upper plumage is dark 
brown, sometimes with a purplish tinge; the underparts are white, except 
a light brown band across the upper breast. Legs, toes, and cere blue; 
beak and claws black ; irides yellow. The female resembles the male, but 
is slightly larger, and the head and breast are more marked with brown. 
Young birds resemble the adult female in autumn plumage, the males not 
assuming mature dress until the third or fourth year. The nestling bird 
is covered with blackish down. The Osprey completes its annual moult 
in December ; and then the feathers are more deeply coloured, have broad 
hght-brown margins, and the upper parts display a purplish gloss. By 
the following spring, however, much of this disappears, and the feathers 
lose their pale margins. 
