154 THE OSPREY 
to tell the truth, he is always ready to save himself the trouble of a 
chase, if he can meet with the carcase of a sheep or lamb; but the 
White-tailed Eagle feeds principally on fish, water-fowl, the smaller 
quadrupeds, and offal, whether of quadrupeds, birds, or fish. On 
such fare, when pressed by hunger, he feeds so greedily that he 
gorges himself till, unable to rise, he becomes the easy prey of the 
shepherd’s boy armed but with a stick or stone. The Eagle is 
sometimes seen on the southern sea-board of England in autumn 
and winter when the younger birds that have been reared in the 
north of Europe are migrating south; but its eyries are now only 
on the west and north coasts, and especially the Shetland Islands. 
It inhabits Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, and the 
north of England, where it frequents the vicinity of the sea and 
large lakes. In winter it appears to leave the high latitudes and 
come farther south, not perhaps so much on account of cold as 
because its ordinary prey, being driven to seek a genial climate, 
it is compelled to accompany its food. Consequently it is more 
abundant in Scotland during winter than summer, and when seen 
late in autumn is generally observed to be flying south, in early 
spring northwards. It builds its nest either in forests, choosing 
the summit of the loftiest trees, or among inaccessible cliffs over- 
hanging the sea. The materials are sticks, heath, tufts of grass, 
dry sea-weed, and it lays two eggs. The young are very voracious, 
and are fed by the parent birds for some time after they have 
left the nest, but when able to provide for themselves are driven 
from the neighbourhood to seek food and a home elsewhere. 
THE OSPREY 
PANDION HALIAETUS 
Wings longer than the tail ; feathers of the head and neck white, with dark 
centres ; on each side of the neck a streak of blackish brown, extending 
downwards ; upper plumage generally deep brown ; under white, tinged 
here and there with yellow, and on the breast marked with arrow-shaped 
spots ; tail-feathers barred with dusky bands ; cere and beak dark grey ; 
iris yellow. Length two feet; breadth five feet. Eggs reddish white, 
blotched and spotted with dark reddish brown. 
‘ ENDOWED with intense keenness of sight, it hovers high in the 
air, and having descried a fish in the sea, it darts down with great 
rapidity, dashes aside the water with its body, and seizes its prey 
in an instant.’ So says the ancient naturalist Pliny, describing a 
bird which he calls Haliaétus, or Sea Eagle. Eighteen centuries 
later, Montagu thus described a bird, which, when he first observed 
