PLATE I 

 O S P R E Y. Pandion haliaetus 



May 1896. This Plate shows a loch in Strathspey where the Osprey has 

 nested for many years, thanks to strict preservation. In the photograph the 

 head of the female sitting on the nest may be distinctly seen, while the male 

 is circling round in the air above the old castle. 



I have spent many most enjoyable hours at this loch watching the old 

 birds feeding their young, and dashing down into the loch to catch the large 

 trout with which they rear their brood. Few scenes are more grandly 

 picturesque than this loch, surrounded by pine-clad mountains, the impressive 

 silence broken only by the scream of the Osprey or the harsh croak of the 

 Raven. Wherever these birds build their nest there is a distinct sense of 

 interest and charm to the lover of birds. It is a thousand pities that Ospreys 

 should be so ruthlessly shot on their migration south, after having been reared 

 and watched over in some zealously guarded forest in the north. 



VOL. iv. 2 A 



89 



