OSPREY. 29 



They are very short and thick, being only two inches and 

 a quarter long, and two mches in circumference great strength 

 being required for its peculiar habits. They are feathered in 

 front about one fourth down, the feathers being short and 

 close. The toes, pale greyish blue, and partially reticulated, 

 with a few broad scales near the end, and furnished beneath, 

 particularly the outer one, with some short sharp spines, or 

 conical scales, for the evident purpose of holding fast a prey 

 so slippery as that which the bird feeds on. The outer toe 

 is longer than the inner one, the contrary being the case with 

 others of its congeners, and adapted for a more than ordinary 

 turning backwards, the better to grasp and hold a fish. The 

 hind toe has four scales, the others only three. The claws, 

 black, and nearly alike in length : those of the first and fourth 

 toes being larger than those of the others. 



The female is considerably larger than the male, but the 

 colour of both is much alike. There is, however, in her a 

 greater prevalence of brown over the white, and it is of a 

 deeper shade, approaching on the lower part of the breast to 

 brownish red. "Weight, sometimes upwards of five pounds; 

 length, two feet to two feet and an inch; expanse of the 

 wings, about five feet and a half. 



The young birds are much variegated in their plumage, 

 which becomes of a more uniform hue as they advance in 

 age the grey and the brown giving way by degrees to white. 



Variations of plumage occur in the Osprey, even in its 

 fully adult state; the white being more or less clear, and the 

 brown more or less prevalent: the legs also vary from light 

 greyish blue to a very pale blue, with a tinge of yellow. 



