THE OSPREY. 33 
utmost regularity. The tantalization of the photographer, 
who is eagerly awaiting in his blind the moment when 
the bird will settle, can readily be imagined! After some 
experience, it is often possible to determine from the 
position of the bird’s body and its legs, some distance 
before it reaches its nest, whether or not it is going to 
alight on that particular occasion. The same fact can 
even be conjectured from photographs. 
Of the various idiosyncrasies of the Osprey, the one 
the photographer has learned to dread the most is the 
occasion when the bird, after passing a number of times 
over her nest, alights instead on some other perch. It 
may be a telegraph pole, a rock, or the snag of a near-by 
tree; but once it has been pelecred in preference to the 
<4 
nest, it is more than likely that the photographer’s “ game 
is up.” No matter how many times the bird is aroused 
mtotught,-it will, thereaiter;nine times: out:of' ten, 
be the perch and not the nest that will end its detours. 
When once the owner of a nest has got the “ perching ”’ 
habit, the photographer may just as well pull up stakes and 
start operations on another nest. 
In the bird-world I know of no more pleasing picture 
than an Osprey settling upon her nest. As she nears its 
edge her legs are extended, and her broad wings beat the 
air rapidly as she “‘ puts on the brakes’? (Plate 160). At 
the moment of alighting she raises her wings high above 
her back, displaying their beautifully marked under- 
surfaces (Plate 17). There may be a few extra flaps as the 
bird gains her equilibrium (Plate 18), and then, unless again 
disturbed, she will stand practically motionless for hours 
(Plate 19). 
The devotion of the female Osprey to her nest is almost 
marvellous. When one realizes that all the mental anguish 
which the bird evidently undergoes in fac’ng the battery 
of the photographer, is merely for the satisfaction of standing 
near her young, he must acknowledge that we have here 
an example of wondrous parental love among birds. She 
