THE NEST OF AN OSPREY. 27 



however, was interesting to me, perched as it was on the 

 very summit of the rock, and composed of large sticks, every 

 one of which must have been a heavy burden for a bird of 

 the size of the osprey. In the centre of the pile of sticks 

 was a cap-shaped hollow, the size of a boy's cap, lined with 

 moss and dead grass, and apparently quite ready to receive 

 eggs. It was of no use lamenting, so we turned our boat 

 towards the landing-place, and drifted back quickly and in 

 silence. Some hooded crows, perceiving that both the 

 ospreys were off their nest, immediately made a dash to- 

 wards it, and I was much amused at seeing the skirmishing 

 between these mischievous and cunning marauders and the 

 two ospreys ; the latter fighting simply pro arts et focis, 

 having no eggs or young to defend ; while the crows fought 

 lustily in the hope only of finding something in the nest, 

 calculating, probably, as we had done, that the ospreys would 

 not have been sitting on an empty nest. 



On returning to the inn at Scowrie, I found that my friend 

 had been more profitably employed in catching a dish of fine- 

 looking though muddy-tasted trout, in a small rushy loch 

 close to the inn. 



One of the Duke of Sutherland's foresters brought in a 

 very fine white-tailed eagle, which he had shot the day 

 before : unluckily the plumage was quite destroyed in 

 consequence of the keeper having, to " make sure," dis- 

 charged his gun at/ the bird a second time, after it had fallen, 

 in consequence of which the head was nearly blown off. I 

 procured, however, some feathers for the large salmon fly 

 which we fish with in the Spey river, in making which the 

 eagle's feather is the principal material employed. 



H A P T E R III. 



Inn at Scowrie Another Osprey's Nest The OKI Ospreys ; Eggs of The 

 River Laxford Inn of Rhiconnich Drive to Durness Beauty of 

 Scenery Drive Round Loch Erriboll Glenmore Loch Maddie Crows 

 Grey Geese ; Time of Breeding Old Nest of Osprey Stag in the 

 Loch Foxhound Black-throated Divers Aultnaharrow Loch Laighal 

 Squall of Wind. 



WE were loth to leave our comfortable hostel at Scowrie, 

 particularly without visiting the island of Handa, a great 

 breeding-place of sea-fowl ; but being rather pressed for time, 



