NATURE BY THE WATERSIDE 247 



heronry are to flourish in the same district the 

 former must be carefully watched. 



In past times the fish in the Lakes attracted some 

 of the nobler birds of prey, such as the Golden 

 and White-tailed Eagles, and the Osprey. Birds of 

 The first named formerly bred in the Prey 

 neighbourhood of Ullswater ; whilst during the 

 second half of the last, and the beginning of the 

 present centuries, the White-tailed or Sea eagle was 

 by no means uncommon among the Lakes. Of 

 a dozen eyries of this fine bird one was on Wallow 

 Crag, near Haweswater ; and from the vicinity 

 of one of the nests, when the birds had young, 

 thirty-five fish (mostly lake trout) were taken. It 

 also nested among the precipitous mountains which 

 surround the head of Ullswater ; and here, as in the 

 case above mentioned, its prey consisted mainly of 

 Great Lake trout and the waterfowl of the lakes. 

 Another bird which the fish in the lakes attracted 

 is the Osprey. Even now scarcely a year passes 

 but what individuals occur. Once it bred com- 

 monly in the district, and almost every mountain 

 top, with wood in the vicinity, had its pair. Words- 

 worth describes watching a pair of them fishing, 

 and Dr. Davy not unfrequently saw them dashing 

 into the tarns. The last-named always refers to 

 this bird as the Gray or Fishing eagle. 



The dotterel is an interesting bird from the 

 angler's standpoint. It still breeds upon the top of 

 our highest mountains, but in ever decreas- The 

 ing numbers. This is owing to the persist- Dotterel 

 ency with which it is hunted down for feathers for 

 fly-dressing. I have found it breeding upon Skid- 

 daw, Sea Fell, and Helvellyn ; and in 1895 I was 

 instrumental in inducing the Westmorland County 



