16 THE HOME-LIFE OF 
Audubon observed them thus placed on the Keys of Florida,” 
Virginia fishermen tell of them on certain of the islands of 
that coast, they are recorded from Mainet and California,} 
while Plum Island, New York, contained ground-nests 
to the number of “ one hundred or more ” in 1879§ before 
Government fortifications and invading civilization drove 
all Ospreys from the place. 
The number of Ospreys’ nests on Gardiner’s Island 1s 
hard to estimate. They cover so large an area, and are 
built in such a variety of sites, that it is a difficult matter 
to count them. ‘There is one elevated point from which 
twenty-four nests are visible. Altogether 1 should say that 
two hundred nests would be a reasonable estimate. An 
idea of the abundance of the nests may be gained from the 
following reference in my diary to a short walk I took on 
the afternoon of July 3rd, 1910: “I must have seen at 
least twenty-five nests of whose existence in 1903 I had no 
recollection. In addition there were dozens whose general 
location I thought I recalled. They were everywhere !. 
Starting from our shanty there is one on the top of a thick 
vine-covered tree within a stone’s-throw; in the small 
wood across the first field there are three; in the trees 
that mark, the first fence, two; in trees about a little 
swamp in the next field, four; in the straggling strip of 
woods that leads back toward the beach, at least ten; 
while away across the island, silhouetted against the sky, 
was an extra big nest in a dead tree with its owners standing 
like statues above it (Plate 36). The heads of young 
could be seen peeping above the rim of almost every nest.”’ 
It is encouraging to note that the Gardiner’s Island Ospreys 
seem to be holding their own well, and perhaps to be even 
increasing. On a certain stretch of beach between two 
fences there were three nests in 1903; in 1910 there 
were seven. 
* cf. MacGillivray, ‘‘ Description of the Rapacious Birds of Great Britain,” p, 121. 
+ ‘* Bird-Lore,” IX., 1907, p. 327. 
{ Anthony, in Bendire’s ‘‘ Life Histories of North American Birds,” I., p. 322. 
& Allen, ‘* Auk,” TX., 1892, p. 317; 
