From Fox's Earth 



The dart of the kingfisher from an overhanging 

 bush on the minnow of the shallows, brings out 

 the contrast between little and great, charming 

 and sublime. From the surface dip of the water- 

 ousel, through the flash of the kingfisher, to the 

 stoop of the osprey is a wondrous ladder in 

 diving. Many touches of beauty or drama hang 

 in the mental gallery of the wanderer by the 

 stream. 



Some twelve years ago an osprey followed the 

 curves of the Tay, in its passage across Strath- 

 more, scanning the water as it went. For three 

 weeks it poised in the air of Stanley, and stooped 

 on its deeply shaded pools. Another year it 

 came not back, nor has it been seen since. The 

 running water, as well as the lake, is impoverished. 

 So the osprey passed the later summer and early 

 autumn until it was time to go. For, unlike the 

 peregrine, it does not stay the winter. 



The manner of diving is interesting, and 

 differs in many curious ways among the divers 

 from a height. Suddenly, closing the wings, the 

 osprey drops like a stone. Sometimes it plunges 

 completely under, and again appears only to 

 break the surface. So the tern poises, so it rises 

 and dips. So it searches the water just beyond 

 where the ripples are blurring the margin of the 

 sea. It never wheels like the hawk. Its beat 

 is one fretted line length without breadth not 

 a still wide expanse. 



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