258 TWO AT A SHOT. 



fish. The chase continued for some time ; the captor, to 

 avoid the pursuer, soaring higher and higher into the air 

 with his booty, and closely followed in all his movements by 

 the intruder. At length, however, the latter also managed 

 to plunge his talons into the pike ; and as both were now fast 

 to it, and neither would let go his hold, their flight became 

 so impeded, that they were unable to support themselves 

 longer in the air, and in consequence the two presently 

 came tumbling headlong into the lake beneath. As this 

 occurred immediately near to where I stood, and as the 

 birds were struggling together on the surface of the water, 

 I at once fired, and was fortunate enough to kill both at a 

 single discharge. They were male and female, and beyond 

 doubt a pair." 



The osprey usually makes his nest in the wilds of the 

 forest, most commonly pretty near to a lake or river, and 

 in the crown of the loftiest and most inaccessible tree he 

 can find. It is composed of sticks and branches, some of 

 them nearly as thick as one's wrist. As with the cinereous 

 eagle, he will, if undisturbed, occupy the same nest for 

 years and years together, so that what with repairs and 

 additions, it becomes at length of so immense a size, that 

 it would require a cart to remove it. But the nest is not 

 always easy of access. A young friend of mine indeed, four 

 summers ago, though acquainted with no fewer than four 

 nests in the Wermeland forests, where he was then sojourn- 

 ing, and though a good climber, was unable, from the 

 trunks of the trees being divested of branches, to get at 

 either. In one, if not in two instances, he was obliged to 

 have the tree felled, before he could obtain possession of the 

 contents of the nest. 



