400 



PANDIONID^E 



PANDION 





scales ; toes with a few scutes immediately above the claws with 

 roughened and prickly pads below ; the outer toe reversible at will ; 

 claws very long, curved and sharp, rounded beneath. 



Only one, almost cosmopolitan, species of Osprey is generally 

 recognised, though recently modern writers have divided this wide- 

 ranging form into three geographical races at least. 



562. Pandion haliaetus. Osprey. 



Falco haliaetus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 129 (1766). 



Pandion haliaetus, Gurney, Ibis, 1859, p. 239 [Natal] ; Layard, B. S. 

 Afr. p. 16 (1867); Sliarpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 449 (1874) ; Sliarpe, ed. 

 Layard'sB. S. Afr. pp. 68, 801 (1875-84) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi, p. 139, 

 pis. 386, 387 (1876) ; Gurney, Ibis, 1882, p. 204 ; Butler, Feilden, and 

 Reid, Zool. 1882, p. 204 [near Durban] ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 144 

 (1896) ; Woodward Bros. Natal B. p. 153 (1899) ; Reiclienow, Vog. 

 Afr. i, p. 607 (1901). 



FIG. 140. Pandion haliaetus. x 



Description. Adult female. Above sepia-brown, most of the 

 feathers edged and tipped with whity-brown; head brown with 

 white bases and edges to the feathers so as to give a mottled appear- 

 ance ; a broad white streak from behind the eye running down the 

 sides of the neck ; primary quills black ; tail almost uniform brown 

 tipped with whity-brown, the outer feathers more or less barred 



