258 NOVEMBER 



living memory, there were two eyries, and two 

 broods safely hatched. 



Some years ago, about 1887, I was able to verify 

 Jardine's statement that if one of a pair of ospreys 

 is shot, the other will soon bring a new mate to the 

 eyrie. But the difficulty of replacing a lost mate in 

 Scotland has been vastly enhanced since Jardine's 

 day. One of the pair on the loch referred to was 

 shot just before the breeding season. The discon- 

 solate mate remained there a few days and then 

 flew off. The following spring the old home was 

 untenanted, but in the third year a pair were in full 

 occupation once more. They are now strictly pro- 

 tected, and as their eyrie is on an island in the 

 heart of a deer forest, they do not run much risk 

 of disturbance. One cannot repeat too often the 

 appeal on behalf of fine birds, for, however unre- 

 lenting man may be in his persecution of rare 

 animals, and jealous of his assumed monopoly over 

 common ones, here and there an ear will hear, and 

 certainly there are more people interested in the 

 matter than there were a few years ago. 1 



1 At the very moment that these notes are being knocked into 

 shape for the printer, news comes of an osprey being sent into 

 Inverness from Moy Hall, the seat of the Mackintosh (August 18, 

 1896). No doubt that this was one of the young hatched in the 



