TAXDIOX HALIAETUS. 197 



210. Pandion haliaetus (Linnaeus). The Osprey-. 



Moorish. Bou haut (Father of fish). Spanish. Aguila pescador. 



" This bird is not uncommon near Tangier, living among the 

 rocks on the coast, where they nest in March, laying two or three 

 eggs ; the young do not fly until July. The migrating birds 

 arrive in October and November, returning north in March." 

 Favier. 



The Osprey is most abundant in the Straits in winter. We 

 saw a pair catching fish near Cape Negro, at Lake Esmir, in 

 April ; and a pair nest on the rocks westward of Tangier and at 

 Cape Negro : they also nest in nearly every favourable situation 

 on the coasts. Another pair regularly breed at Gibraltar, on the 

 rocks a little to the north of " Monkeys' Cave." The Rev. John 

 White noticed the nesting of the Osprey at Gibraltar about 1776 ; 

 probably this is the same situation, and has been used ever since. 

 I first knew of the eyry in May 1869, when there were young in 

 the nest ; these did not fly till the middle of July. In 1871 the 

 nest was taken in the middle of March, and then contained three 

 eggs ; the old birds did not leave the vicinity, and bred again the 

 next season, but in a different situation close to the old one. 

 The first site of the nest was only to be seen from the Europa 

 Advance Battery, where I spent many an hour watching the old 

 birds with a telescope. They, in 1894, were still at the old 

 site. 



Being positive that only one pair of Ospreys breed at Gibraltar, 

 and knowing the date of laying of that pair, it is difficult to 

 account for the fact of seeing, on the 23rd of April, one take up 

 from the surface of the sea and carry off a stick or splinter some 

 three feet long ; and on the 30th of March I also saw another 

 carrying a stick. Could this be done in play ? On the 17th of 

 February I saw one of these Ospreys give a Gannet, which had 

 ventured too near the nest, a great buffeting, knocking him about 

 and chasing him for half a mile. The Isla de Palomas, a small 

 patch of rock near the celebrated and dangerous Pearl Eock, is a 



