276 ON EAGLES. 



and, flying round it several times, swoop down upon a 

 good-sized pike, and bear it away as if it had been a 

 minnow. 



I have been told, but cannot vouch for the truth of it, 

 that they have another method of taking their prey in 

 warm weather, when fish bask near the shore. They fix 

 one claw in a weed or bush, and strike the other into the 

 fish; but I never saw them attempt any other mode of 

 " leistering" than that I have mentioned: when they see 

 a fish, they immediately settle in the air lower their 

 flight, and settle again then strike down like a dart. 

 They always seize prey with their claws, the outer toes of 

 which turn round a considerable way, which gives them a 

 larger and firmer grasp. Owls have also this power, to 

 enable them with greater certainty to secure their almost 

 equally agile victims ; while the fern-owl has the toe 

 turned round like a parrot, to assist it in the difficult task 

 of catching insects in the air. But if this were the case 

 with the others, although it might be an advantage in the 

 first instance, it would very considerably weaken their 

 hold when prey was struck. 



I remember seeing another pair of ospreys on Loch 

 Menteith that had their eyrie on the gnarled branch of an 

 old tree. They became so accustomed to the man who 

 let boats there that the female never even left her nest 

 when he landed on the island, unless a stranger was with 

 him. Once, when he returned home after a short absence, 

 he saw one of them sitting on the tree, making a kind of 

 wailing cry : suspecting all was not right, he rowed to the 



