88 ON EAGLES. 



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 lets 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 island, and found the female 

 was missing, and the nest harried. They have never 

 hatched there since : the male has been frequently seen, 

 but he has never found another mate. When they had 

 young, they did not confine their depredations to Loch 

 Menteith, but used to go, in quest of prey, to the other 

 lochs in the neighbourhood ; and, in the evening, would 

 fly down the glen, carrying a fish a foot long in their 

 claws. 



The nest of the osprey is lined with coarse water- 

 plants and grasses : the outside fenced with thick boughs. 



