CXLVI. 

 FALCO IlALiaiETUS. 



OspREV, Fish Hawk. 



Specimens of tho eggs of the C)sprey, kindly K<'nt mo 

 from the collections of Sir William Jurdine and Mr. Yarn;ll, 

 although very similar in colour, difl(;r considerably in shape ; 

 one of them possessing the roundness which marks the eggs 

 of the Raptores, whilst the other is considerably more 

 lengthened, and of a form, which would appear from Wilson, 

 to be characteristic of this species. A note, accompanying 

 the specimen from Sir W. J ardine,"states, that it was pro- 

 cured from Loch Mentcith in Perthshire, a favourite station 

 with the bird. Mr. Selby mentions his having seen the 

 Osprcy on Loch Awe, " where an eyrie is annually esta- 

 blished upon the ruins of a castle near the southern extremity 

 of the lake, and another in a similar situation nearly opposite 

 the egress of the river Awe." For a further account of this 

 species, now so rarely to be observed at home, I have had 

 recourse to the faithful descriptions of Wilson, whose oppor- 

 tunities of observing it were so frequent. 



" The nest of the Fish-Hawk is usually built on the top 

 of a dead or decaying tree, sometimes not more than fifteen, 

 often upwiurds of fifty feet from the ground. It has been re- 

 marked by the people of the sea coast, that the most thriving 

 tree will die in a few years after being taken possession of by 

 the fish-hawk. This is attributed to the fish oil, and to the 

 excrements of the bird, but is more probably occasioned by 

 the large heap of wet salt materials of which the nest is 

 composed. In my late excursion to the sea shore, I ascend- 

 ed to several of these nests that hud been built in from year 

 to year, and found them constructed as follows : --Externally, 

 large sticks from half an inch to an inch and a half in diame- 



