at the bird's leisure, after which the Osprey may be seen half asleep on his 

 perch digesting his meal. 



The Osprey is not a noisy bird, by any means, even when its nest is 

 threatened. Its ordinary call-note resembles the syllables ' kew, keiu, hew? 

 and the alarm-note is a harsh scream. Like most raptorial birds, the Osprey 

 pairs for life, and returns year after year to its old breeding-place. Occasion- 

 ally two pairs will come to the same place in early spring, and fierce is the 

 battle for supremacy, one of the combatants often paying the penalty with his 

 life. 



In bygone days, when the Osprey was a fairly common bird in the 

 Highlands, it usually chose some ruined castle, surrounded by water, or rocky 

 islet on which to build its nest. These nests were tenanted year after year, 

 and many of their sites are still pointed out as having almost an historical 

 interest. From the fact that the nest is used for many years in succession, 

 it is generally an enormous structure of sticks, three or four feet in diameter, 

 and often almost as high. When built on a pine-tree, as it often is, the 

 branches become twisted and distorted with the great weight. As a rule the 

 largest tree in the forest is chosen, and the nest is built on some broad, 

 wide-spreading branch. The foundation is made of dead sticks and branches 

 mixed with sods, heather, and decaying vegetable matter, the top of the nest 

 is flat, consisting of fine twigs covered with grass, and the cup which contains 

 the eggs is very shallow, being generally about a foot in diameter and two 

 inches deep. Three is the usual number of eggs laid, occasionally only two, 

 and a clutch of four is uncommon. 



The eggs are laid about the first of May, and vary considerably in colour. 

 Typical specimens are yellowish white in ground-colour, boldly blotched and 

 spotted with irregular markings of rich reddish brown, which are often so 

 thickly dispersed over the larger end of the egg as to hide the ground-colour. 

 Some specimens are covered with violet grey underlying markings ; others have 

 large irregular blotches here and there, or have the markings collected into 

 one huge blotch at the end of the egg, or forming a zone round the middle. 

 A few eggs are quite purple, some are suffused with a reddish tinge, while 

 others are entirely covered with small spots and streaks of violet grey and 

 orange red marbled over the entire surface. In shape they are far more 

 elongated than is usual with the eggs of the Falcons and Eagles. They 

 vary in length from 2*5 to 2'io inches, and in breadth from 1*94 to 175 

 inch. Only one brood is reared in the year. 



88 



