

THE OSPREY. 25? 



" Some of my friends were, in another instance, sitting 

 in the same hut, when, as luck would have it, no fewer 

 than three eagles simultaneously paid the carcase a visit, all 

 of which on the aforesaid old sportsman counting, as on 

 similar occasions, ' one, two, three 1 / fell dead at the same 

 moment. 



" In the year 1826, the old man spoken of killed no fewer 

 than thirty eagles from the hut in question ; and ever since 

 not less than from twelve to sixteen of those birds have been 

 shot there annually." 



The Osprey (Fisk-Ljuse, Sw. ; Aquila Haliaetus, Meyer) 

 was pretty common with us, as indeed is the case throughout 

 Scandinavia, from Scania to far beyond the polar circle ; and 

 that as well on the coast, as on all the great lakes and rivers of 

 the interior. Migrates. 



He subsists chiefly on fish; and from miscalculating his 

 powers he often, as with the cinereous eagle, pounces on 

 such as are of superior strength to himself, and is carried 

 under water and drowned. 



M. Malm related to me a somewhat singular circumstance 

 respecting this bird. 



"One day in the month of June, 1835, when in northern 

 Scania," he said, " I was witness to a rather curious incident. 

 An osprey, whilst in search of prey, was making his gyra- 

 tions above the lake Ifvosjon, on the banks of which I 

 was standing. Having at length discovered a fish, he 

 pounced down upon it with the rapidity of lightning, and 

 presently afterwards ascended aloft again, bearing a pike 

 of some eighteen inches in length in his talons. Whilst 

 he was making for the nearest strand, he was met by 

 another osprey, who endeavoured to possess himself of the 



VOL. n. s 



