THE OSPREY 



[ORDER: Accipitres. SUBORDER: Falcones. FAMILY: Pandionidce] 

 PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



[F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. TYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON] 



OSPREY [Pandion halidetus (Linnaeus). Fish-hawk, whiteheaded-buzzard ; 

 mullet-hawk (Hants). French, balbusard ; German, Fischadler ; Italian, 

 falco pescatore]. 



1. Description. The osprey may always be distinguished by the blue 

 colour of the cere and legs, the horny spikes on the sole of the foot, and the 

 reversible hind-toe. There is no seasonal change of plumage. The male has the 

 head white, striated on the crown with dark brosvn, and with a broad bar of dark 

 brown running from the hind-neck forwards to the eye. The rest of the upper 

 parts are of an umber-brown glossed with purple ; the under parts white, with a band 

 of dark brown across the base of the neck. Cere and legs greenish-blue. Iris yellow. 

 (PI. 151.) Length 22 in. [559'0 mm.]. The female differs from the male in being 

 rather larger. Length 24 in. [609*0 mm.]. Immature birds have pale edges to 

 the feathers of the upper parts, and a barred tail. The young in down is of a 

 chocolate-brown colour with a conspicuous median dorsal stripe of white, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. In Great Britain the osprey is now on the verge of 

 extinction as a breeding species. Formerly it was a not uncommon summer 

 resident on many lochs in the Highlands of Scotland. Particulars of many of these 

 deserted sites will be found in the Fauna of the North-west Highlands and Skye, 

 pp. 178-206. The two best known nesting-places (Loch Arkaig and Loch-an-Eilean) 

 are both now deserted. Previously to 1860 it was known to breed also in south- 

 west Scotland, and according to Macpherson it nested in the Lake District up to 

 the end of the eighteenth century. On the Continent it is thinly distributed in 

 suitable localities from Lapland and North Russia to the Mediterranean Islands 



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