Birds. 9207 
dark brown, with some white about the head. The fish was taken with the talons. 
A few days afterwards, when fishing in Loch Erricht (to the north-west of Loch Ran- 
noch), my son saw an éagle settle on a high crag, on which, he was told, eagles still 
breed. In 1862 an acquaintance of mine saw, and narrowly missed shooting, an eagle 
on the high moors a little to the west of Schiehallien. Last season another friend of 
mine was, with his gilly, early one morning, waiting for deer in Glen Morrison, when 
an eagle swooped down from the neighbouring mountains, flew round them in dimi- 
nishing circles, and came at last so close as sorely to try my friend’s forbearance, when 
the gilly made some movement, and the bird was off like a flash of lightning. I can- 
not vouch for the ornithological knowledge of my two friends, but the first of them 
believed his bird to be the golden eagle. The Trosach’s Hotel and the Invergarry Inn, 
in Glengarry, each contains (or did contain a very few years ag) a stuffed eagle, killed 
in the neigbourhood not long before, and both these birds are immature golden eagles. 
There is no mistaking the feet and the feathered legs. From all I have seen, heard 
and read on the subject, I believe that the golden eagle is the common eagle of the 
inland districts of the Highlands, although the erne may be more numerous in the 
maritime parts. Blue hares were, and no doubt still are, very abundant on Schiebal- 
lien and the neighbouring hills ; and if they are, as is most probable, equally abun- 
dant in many other parts of the Highlands, the annual destruction of lambs by the 
few eagles now remaining in Scotland can scarcely be large. I suppose the grouse- 
shooter in Scotland considers the blue hare as great a nuisance as the game-preserver 
in England does the rabbit, and if left for the eagles the lambs may escape. — Henry 
Hussey ; The Deanery, Peterborough, June 20, 1864, 
Osprey near Beverley.—A most beautiful old female specimen of the osprey (Falco 
haliaétus) was shot within a few miles of Beverley, by Mr. Kemp, gamekeeper, of 
Skerne, on the 4th of May, 1864. The bird was shot nearer to Driffield than to 
Beverley, but still only about twelve miles from the latter town. It had no doubt 
been feeding on trout taken from the far-famed stream that runs close to the town of 
Driffield, so well known to most followers of the gentle art. Never having previously 
seen a specimen of the osprey in the flesh, I was naturally enough delighted to have 
an opportunity of dissecting one, and this I was enabled to do by the purchase of the’ 
fine specimen above recorded, which has since been beautifully mounted by our able 
taxidermist, Mr. R. Richardson, of Beverley. _ Referring to my notes taken at the 
time of the dissection, I find jotted down the following remarks. ‘ The bird presents 
perhaps the most marvellous combination of concentrated power and activity I ever 
beheld in a form of flesh and blood, measuring 2 feet from tip of bill to tip of tail; its 
huge wings rather exceed 5 feet 5 inches in their span. Whether we consider the 
development of the bones, with their ridges and processes for the attachment of those 
muscles called into play during flight,—the enormous power of the muscles themselves, 
when compared with’the same muscles in other birds,—or the primary feathers of those 
wonderful organs of locomotion, that rival the whirlwind in their proportionate powers 
and speed,—we find subject, indeed, for wonder and admiration—evidence most 
striking of the surpassing design and wisdom of that great Creator who has fashioned 
all these beautiful objects of Nature, and supplied them so bountifully with the means 
of enjoyment and usefulness in life. The greatest concentration of power in this bird 
is to be found in the leg and fot, whose resistless furce and grasp may to a certain 
degree be appreciated by an endeavour to prize open the talons within several hours 
after death,—which, in the act of death, had been spasmodically flexed upon them- 
