ON EAGLES. 87 



Aware of their habit, I went, when a very young sports- 

 man, with a gamekeeper, and having concealed myself 

 behind the stump of an old tree, desired him to pull 

 away the boat. The ospreys, after following him the 

 usual distance, returned, and gradually narrowing their 

 circles, the female, at last, came within fair distance I 

 fired, and shot her. Not content with this, the game- 

 keeper and I ascended the ruin, and finding nothing in 

 the nest but a large sea-trout, half-eaten, we set it in a 

 trap, and returning, after two or three hours, found the 

 male caught by the legs. They were a beautiful pair : 

 the female, as in most birds of prey, being considerably 

 the largest the woodcut is a most correct likeness. 

 The eggs of these ospreys had been regularly taken 

 every year, and yet they never forsook their eyrie. 

 It was a beautiful sight to see them sail into our bay on 

 a calm summer night, 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 





