At Home with Wild Nature 



chicken from somebody's fowl-run in an incredibly 

 short space of time. A member of this species is always 

 easily identified by its forked tail and easy, graceful 

 flight. 



The osprey or fish hawk has, I fear, finally dis- 

 appeared as a British breeding bird from its last strong- 

 holds in Scotland, although wandering individuals from 

 the Continent are seen nearly every spring and autumn 

 on the eastern side of England, and invariably wel- 

 comed with a charge of gunshot. The late Lochiel of 

 Lochiel used to take great pride in the pair of ospreys 

 that every season visited Loch Arkaig on his property 

 to breed, and used to write and tell me of his efforts to 

 preserve them, but alas ! the intrepid egg-collector and 

 circumstances defeated him, and the eyrie was finally 

 left untenanted about a decade ago. 



Like the dipper the osprey secures its livelihood in a 

 manner that appears quite unsuitable to its appearance, 

 and sets one wondering how such creatures evolved their 

 habits. It lives principally upon fish, which it captures 

 in the most dramatic manner. Flying along, somewhat 

 like a gigantic kestrel over river, lake or sea, the bird 

 keeps a sharp lookout for any salmon, pike or trout 

 that may be swimming near the surface, and directly 

 one is espied, plunges headlong upon it. Striking the 

 water with a churning splash the bird rises laboriously 

 on dripping wings, and, if it has been successful, bears 

 its glistening prey away in its strong talons to some 

 favourite rock or horizontal tree trunk, where it is 

 devoured. I once examined a feeding table of the latter 



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