OUR BIRDS OF PREY. 85 



not by any means restricted to fish, for it will pick up almost 

 anything it can get, and, like its ally, owes its diminished numbers 

 very largely to its fondness for offal. 



Mr. Wolley, in his delightful " Ootheca Wolleyana," describes 

 nests in very small trees about four- feet from the ground. The 

 only two eyries of this species with which the writer is personally 



THE OSPREY. 



acquainted are in Sweden, one by an arm of the water, one by an 

 inland lake, and both on the rock itself. 



Many kinds of birds are in the habit of driving off their young as 

 soon as they can shift for themselves moorhens, for example, do 

 this, as every countryman knows. The larger birds of prey can 

 only exist under this system of isolation, and as a consequence, to 



