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" was enveloped in black velvety down, but not thick. In the down the white shafts of the feathers 

 (the extremities furnished with downy tufts) could be plainly distinguished ; on the head all the shafts 

 were black. The smallest of the nestlings (187 millims. long) was covered with white down, the colour 

 on the back only being black ; above the eye and extending backwards towards the region of the ears 

 was a blackish stripe ; shafts of feathers indistinct." 



Few of our European birds have so extensive a range as the Osprey, which is found throughout 

 Europe and Africa, from as far north as the forest extends down to South Africa. It also 

 inhabits the continent of Asia generally, Australia, New Zealand, some of the islands of the 

 Pacific, and the continent of America from the fur-countries down to Brazil. With us in 

 Great Britain it is a summer visitant, and breeds in Scotland. In England it has been obtained 

 on almost every part of the coast, and on several occasions tolerably far inland, as for instance 

 in Oxfordshire and Shropshire. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell says that in Dorsetshire it is commoner 

 than the Sea-Eagle. Several have, he says, " been killed at Weymouth and Poole, whose 

 estuaries attract this bird of prey. Mr. Thompson has an adult male in his collection which 

 was shot in Weymouth Backwater, September 22nd, 1870, whilst being mobbed by a Kestrel; 

 a second was seen the next day, but not secured; and one was shot the same year in Poole 

 Harbour. Several other instances have occurred from the year 1846 to 1870, which is our last 

 and most recent record. In Christchurch Bay this bird is called the Mullet-Hawk." Mr. Cecil 

 Smith informs me that in Somersetshire it is met with occasionally in the autumn, and occurs as 

 a tolerably rare straggler both in North and South Devon. On the east coast it is also met with 

 on passage ; and Mr. Stevenson writes (B. of Norf. i. p. 5) as follows : — " It still visits us as a 

 regular migrant in small numbers ; but though formerly, as stated by Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, 

 most plentiful during the autumn months, it has of late years entirely altered its habits in this 

 respect, and appears almost invariably in April and May, and occasionally even as late as the 

 middle of June." As regards its occurrence in Scotland, it used formerly to breed regularly 

 in several localities ; but, Professor Newton writes (Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 33), " all this is now 

 changed. Twenty years since, between 1849 and 1851, Mr. Wolley found that, owing to the 

 destruction of their occupants, most of the breeding-places named by former observers were 

 deserted — the only exceptions being a few nests in the northern counties of Sutherland and 

 Inverness, described by Mr. St. John, in visiting one of which Mr. Wolley nearly lost his life. 

 Some years passed, and it came to be believed that the Osprey as a native bird had been 

 thoroughly rooted out; but in 'The Ibis' for 1865 Mr. Rocke stated that the species bred 

 every year in Inverness, whence Lord Hill had several-times received the young ; but finding it 

 impossible to rear them, he had requested that in future they might not be disturbed. About 

 this time, also, information reached Mr. Wolf, the accomplished zoological artist, that a second 

 spot in another quarter was still tenanted ; and lately Mr. Gray has announced that there were 

 three or four strictly protected breeding-stations in Ross-shire, and that he has authority for 

 believing that one in the south-west of the Kingdom is still used. It thus appears that there is 

 still a sufficient number left to stock the whole of Scotland ; and it may be hoped that the efforts 

 of those who are anxious for the species to retain its rank as a native of our island will meet 

 with success." It visits the Orkneys and Hebrides as a straggler ; and Mr. Saxby writes (B. of 

 Shetl. Isl. p. 9), in Shetland it " is known only as a straggler, appearing at long and uncertain 



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