the sea. I am acquainted with several occurrences 

 in our county — Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, and, 

 if my memory serves me correctly, more than one 

 in Warwickshire, and on one occasion had the great 

 delight of watching an Osprey fishing at his ease, 

 though without success, on a broad reach of our 

 principal river, the Nen. My earliest acquaintance 

 with this species was made upon the shores of the 

 Lake of Geneva, near Lausanne, where, in March 

 and early April, one or two were constantly to be seen 

 sailing at no great height above the water, and 

 occasionally dashing at the fishes that frequented it; 

 so far as I could then make out, small perch were 

 the most frequent victims. I have subsequently met 

 with Ospreys throughout the Mediterranean, from 

 Gibraltar to the Ionian Islands and the adjacent 

 Turkish mainland. A pair of these birds nested 

 regularly, and may, for all that I know to the contrary, 

 do so still, on the Mediterranean side of the Rock of 

 Gibraltar ; Colonel Irby showed me this nest in June 

 18G9, when it contained young, and he has published 

 some interesting details with reference to the Osprey 

 and its habits in that part of the world in his exhaustive 

 work on the ' Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar.' 

 I know of several nesting-places of the Osprey on 

 certain Mediterranean islands, and feel no doubt that 

 a pair constantly observed by us in May 1876 about 

 the harbour of Santander had a nest in that neigh- 

 bourhood, although we failed to discover it. From 

 my experience I think that the Osprey prefers the 

 bare limb of a high tree, or the top of a post or 



