AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 79 



do when she came back, I waited quietly for over half an hour, but she 

 did not return. Meanwhile the father stayed near the nest. I could 

 not spare any more time that day, so I started for home. Mr. Osprey 

 heard me at once and left his comfortable perch, calling his alarm cry. 

 Immediately I heard a second cry of alarm and Mrs. Osprey came into 

 sight. She must have wanted to stretch herself and so left the nest 

 and flew to some perch just out of my sight, staying there until she 

 heard her mate calling for help. Their danger call grew less and less 

 as I left them. 



EGG OF OSPREY, [NATURAL SIZE]. 



On my next visit I learned more about Ospreys than I had learned in 

 all my other visits put together. I saw the mother bird on the edge of 

 the nest, talking to the young birds, before she saw me. When I 

 approached a few feet nearer a stick cracked under my feet and announc- 

 ed my arrival. Mrs. Osprey flew around giving the note of alarm, 

 and Mr. Osprey came in a few minutes with a large fish in his talons. 

 I sat down with my camera near the nest. The Ospreys knew they 

 must give the fish to their hungry little ones, yet they did not want to 

 let me see them do so. I don't see why they were so bashful. I had 

 no objections to seeing them in the act of feeding their young. I had 

 been near the nest fully an hour, and the fish had been cooking in the 

 sun for the same length of time. The birds held a consultation and 

 planned how they could deceive me. Mother Osprey secured a big 

 stick, thinking I w^ould suppose it to be a fish, for it did somewhat re- 

 semble one, and, holding it in her talons just as her in,ace held the fish, 

 she circled around the nest for a few times, then alighted on the nest, 

 stick and all. She soon flew off with the stick, and, after circling 

 around again, went stick foremost into the nest out of sight. She 

 stayed there until she had told her children the plan, then flew off back 

 of the hill to where her mate was. They could see me but 1 could not 



