ON EAGLES. 249 



man, in company with a gamekeeper, I shot the female and 

 trapped the male of the ospreys that were wont to build on 

 the old Castle of Galbraith. They were a beautiful pair 

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

 larger : 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 after 

 flying round it several times, strike 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 immedi- 

 ately settle in the air lower their flight, and settle again 

 then shoot 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 in- 

 stance, it would very considerably weaken their hold when 

 prey was struck. 



I remember seeing another pair of ospreys on Loch Men- 

 teith that had their eyrie on the gnarled branch of an old 

 tree. They became so accustomed to the man who let out 

 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 



