184 OSPREY. 



chestnut trees, we think, serve for a support. 

 The eyries we have seen and examined were, 

 however, always placed on the summit of the ruin, 

 though trees, aged, high, and stumped, were fre- 

 quent in the vicinity. These nests are returned to 

 year after year, and though one of the partners is 

 often shot, the summer has not half run before 

 another has been obtained. The eggs are of a 

 more lengthened form than what we generally 

 see among the Falconidae, and are yellowish 

 white, thickly spotted, or blotched with yellowish 

 brown. (See Plate XI. fig. 2.) 



When fishing, it flies, with a slow and rather 

 heavy and laborious flight, along the stream or 

 lake, until its attention is arrested, when it 

 balances itself by a rapid motion of the wings, 

 and with the tail expanded. Before striking, a 

 descent is generally made nearer the water, and 

 a renewed inspection is continued, after which 

 the dash or plunge is made with closed wings, 

 and the body is sometimes immersed, and gene- 

 rally quite obscured by the spray of the plunge. 

 If unsuccessful, the bird rises, shakes the water 

 from its plumage in the air, and after a circle 

 around, returns to resume its survey. If, how- 

 ever, the prey has been struck, we have always 

 seen it fly directly to some distant hill or rock, 

 where it is devoured. It is never carried to the 

 shore and immediately eaten ; but from the 



