298 LAKES AND STREAMS 



on carrion, seems to prefer fish to warm-blooded animals, such as young birds, 

 hares, rats, and mice; it is not, however, capable of diving, and can only catch 

 fish which are close to the surface. When flying in search of prey, it is far 

 swifter and more courageous than its cousin the red kite, which it resembles 

 in possessing a singularly graceful action. The young birds are distinguish- 

 able by their bold and erect attitude from those of the common kite, which 

 timidly crouch on the ground. Both young and old birds start at the end 

 of September or early in October to winter in Africa, and return to their 

 breeding-area at the end of March or beginning of April. The black kite ranges 

 all over Europe and central Asia, from Spain to the Lena River. In western 

 Europe it is rare, but in the east, in lower Austria, Hungary, and along the 

 Danube it is more frequent, while in Wallachia, southern Russia, and especially 

 the Dobrudscha it is abundant. 



The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is another bird-of-prey living 

 among similar but wilder surroundings. In Germany this bird roosts 

 in the tops of large trees, such as old oaks with dead boughs or half-dead firs, 

 but on the sea-shore or on high mountains it chooses steep cliffs, and inacces- 

 sible spots, while in barren steppes and coral-islands it rests on the ground. 

 The nest has everywhere the same character; it is, even for the size of the bird, 

 unusually deep and bulky, and consists of dry twigs and other coarse material 

 built up into a pile four feet, perhaps, in diameter, the eggs being laid in a hollow 

 about a foot across and scarcely a couple of inches deep. In districts where the 

 osprey is frequent, it builds in the neighbourhood of others of its kind, and even 

 allows sparrows and other small birds to establish themselves in the sides of the 

 nest. Its principal food consists of fish, in search of which it flies in a series 

 of rather low circles. On sighting its prey the bird hovers for a moment, and 

 then dashes down with closed wings and extended legs deep into the water, 

 whence it works its way up again by movements of its wings, shaking off the 

 water clinging to its feathers as it emerges, and uttering a scream of triumph as 

 it flies off with the booty to a place of safety. The fish is always struck in 

 such a way that it has the head turned forward, and the claws of the osprey 

 sometimes penetrate so deeply that they have literally to be eaten out by carefully 

 tearing the flesh from the fish's bones. As a rule, the young are so plentifully 

 provided with food that they eat only the front half of each fish, the remainder 

 being left to decay or to become the prey of ravens and kites. The osprey fishes 

 regularly at the same hours, generally from eight to nine in the morning and from 

 twelve to two in the afternoon, and never troubles water-fowl, which consequently 

 exhibit no fear at its presence. Its distribution is cosmopolitan and embraces even 

 Australia ; but the bird is more abundant in northern and temperate regions than 

 in those that are warmer. In central Europe it is principally found in Pomerania, 

 Brandenburg, and on the Rhine. It is equally common in Bohemia, and in the 

 large forests of the middle and lower Danube, where it nests, not in the small 

 woods, but in the large forests close to the river, though it there fishes in the 

 ponds and lakes, avoiding the more inhabited parts so long as it finds fish 

 enough elsewhere. 



