OSPREY. 33 



generally at the latter season, it now appears most generally 

 at the former, and he ascribes this change to the great 

 destruction of the species in Scotland, which has of late 

 years stopped the supply of young birds that would have 

 been otherwise bred in that country and migrated southward 

 in autumn. The spring visitants, which are usually birds 

 of the preceding year, often protract their stay as late as 

 June, but there is no well-authenticated instance of the 

 Osprey having bred in this or any other part of England. 

 In Christchurch Bay the bird is called the " Mullet-Hawk," 

 and the figure of the bird here given represents it with a 

 Grey Mullet under its foot. 



In Scotland, Sir William Jardine, writing in 1832, said : 

 " A pair or two may be found about most of the Highland 

 lochs, where they fish, and, during the breeding season, 

 build on the ruined towers so common on the edges or 

 insulated rocks of these wild waters. The nest is an 

 immense fabric of rotten sticks 



Itself a burden for the tallest tree, 



and is generally placed, if such exists, on the top of the 

 chimney, and if this be wanting, on the highest summit of 

 the building. An aged tree may sometimes be chosen, but 

 ruins are always preferred, if near. They have the same 

 propensity of returning to an old station with those of 

 America ; and if one is shot, a mate is soon found, and 

 brought to the ancient abode. Loch Lomond, Loch Awe 

 and Killchurn Castle, and Loch Menteith, have been long 

 breeding-places." All this is now changed. Twenty years 

 since, between 1849 and 1851, Mr. Wolley found that, 

 owing to the destruction of their occupants, most of the 

 breeding-places named by former observers were deserted ; 

 the only exceptions being a few nests, in the northern 

 counties of Sutherland and Inverness, described by Mr. St. 

 John, in visiting one of which Mr. Wolley nearly lost his 

 life. Some years passed, and it came to be believed among 

 naturalists that the Osprey as a native bird had been 

 thoroughly rooted out ; but, in ' The Ibis ' for 1865, Mr. 

 VOL. i. F 



