23 



OSPREY. 



Pandion haliaetus, SAVIGNY. 



Falco " BEWICK. 



Balbusardus haliaetus^ FLEMING. 



Aquila " JENYNS. 



Pandion The name of a Greek hero, changed into a bird of prey. 

 Haliaetus. (H)als-ThQ sea. Aietos An Eagle. 



IT is not every one who has had the fortune the good 

 fortune to visit those scenes, where, in this country at least, 

 the Osprey is almost exclusively to be met with. In these, 

 which may in truth be called the times of perpetual motion, 

 there is indeed hardly a nook, or mountain pass, which is not 

 yearly visited by some one or more travellers. "Where shall 

 the most secure dweller among the rocks be now free from 

 the intrusion of, in ornithological language, at least 'occasional 

 visitants?' Still the case is not exactly one to which applies 

 the logical term of 'universal affirmative.' Though every spot 

 may be visited, it is not every one who visits it. How many 

 of those who shall read the following description of the Osprey, 

 have taken the 'grand tour' of Sutherlandshire? 



In that desolate and romantic region, though even there at 

 wide intervals, and 'far between,' and in a very few other 

 localities, the Fishing Hawk may yet be seen in- all the wild 

 freedom of his nature. There it breeds, in the fancied con- 

 tinuance of that safety, which has for so many ages been real. 

 You may see, even in the year eighteen hundred and fifty, 

 an occasional eyrie on the top of some rocky islet in the middle 

 of the mountain lake. 



This species is very widely distributed over a large portion 

 of the globe, being met with, in greater or less abundance, in 

 Europe, Africa, and America, sometimes in very considerable 

 numbers, and doubtless in Asia also. In America it seems to 

 be most particularly numerous, a whole colony tenanting the 

 same building place. It is also met with in Russia, Siberia, 

 Kamtschatka, Scandinavia, Trance, Spain, and Germany, Swit- 



