THE LAST OF THE OSPJtEYS 53 



to catch a flounder or grey mullet, on which it pounces 

 with a rush like that of the solan-goose, striking the 

 water with its thickly feathered breast, and driving its 

 strong talons deep into the fish. At Christchurch, 

 where they are known as the " mullet-hawks," the 

 young ospreys on their migration may be seen every 

 autumn ; and one at least of the residents by the 

 estuary makes it his business, when prowling gunners 

 are about, to be on the water in his punt, and scare 

 away the too-confiding hawks from the posts on which 

 they sit. Most of these young ospreys are probably 

 bred in Norway and Sweden, the older birds which 

 are seen on their way northwards in the spring being 

 bound for the same shores. 



But some of the Christchurch ospreys are probably 

 British birds, and it seems probable that the breeding 

 places whence they come in autumn, or to which they 

 are returning in spring, may be known with some 

 approach to certainty. In a report recently read before 

 the Zoological Society, it was stated that there are but 

 three pairs which regularly breed in Scotland ; and in 

 recognition of the protection extended to these survivors 

 by the owners on whose property the nests were built, 

 the Society resolved to bestow their silver medal on 

 Donald Cameron of Lochiel, and Sir John Peter Grant 

 of Rothiemurchus. To Sir J. P. Grant, whose death 

 occurred a few days before the day on which the 

 presentation was to have been made, belonged the credit 

 of protecting what is perhaps the most ancient con- 

 tinuous breeding-place of the osprey in the Highlands. 



