OSPREY. 61 



the ground-colour. Some examples are quite purple ; others are entirely 

 suffused with orange-red; whilst a very beautiful variety has all the 

 vacant spaces between the bold brown markings blurred and dashed 

 with violet-grey shell-markings. Other specimens have a large blot of 

 colour here and there over the entire surface, or have the colouring-matter 

 in a zone or belt round the middle of the shell. Many examples are 

 marked with smaller spots and streaks of colour, and marbled over the 

 entire surface with violet-grey and faint orange-red. The eggs of the 

 Osprey are rarely faintly or sparingly marked, and justly claim to rank as 

 some of the handsomest in all the British series. In form they are not so 

 round as the true Falcon's, and are also far more elongated than the typical 

 Eagle's, and are somewhat coarse in texture. They vary in length from 

 2'5 to 2'15 inch, and in breadth from T95 to 1'75 inch. They are usually 

 hatched by the end of May or early in June. Like many other birds of prey, 

 the female Osprey is not easily scared from the nest. During the period of 

 incubation the male bird keeps close to the vicinity of the nest, and 

 supplies the female with food ; she has therefore but little cause to leave 

 her charge, and only does so for very short intervals. The young are fed 

 by both parents until they are fully able to provide for themselves ; and 

 even when they are able to leave the nest they keep in their parents' 

 company for some little time, the old birds still supplying them with food. 

 "When they are strong upon the wing they will still haunt the place of 

 their birth, probably till the migratory period arrives, and roost at night 

 upon the old nest. But one brood is reared in the season. 



The plumage of the head and nape is white, broadly streaked with brown, 

 some of the feathers being elongated. The whole upper plumage is dark 

 brown, sometimes with a purplish tinge ; the underparts are white, except 

 a light brown band across the upper breast. Legs, toes, and cere blue ; 

 beak and claws black ; irides yellow. The female resembles the male, but 

 is slightly larger, and the head and breast are more marked with brown. 

 Young birds resemble the adult female in autumn plumage, the males not 

 assuming mature dress until the third or fourth year. The nestling bird 

 is covered with blackish down. The Osprey completes its annual moult 

 in December ; and then the feathers are more deeply coloured, have broad 

 light-brown margins, and the upper parts display a purplish gloss. By 

 the following spring, however, much of this disappears, and the feathers 

 lose their pale margins. 



