SIXTEENTH CENTURY 161 
body almost as thin as that of a young cock: and its wings 
also almost like those of fowls. It flies away with difficulty 
unless it has previously sprung up [lit. jumped]. It lays 
eggs to the number of eleven or twelve, or fewer. I saw its 
nest interwoven with reeds in a certain lake, with twelve 
eggs.* Jn colour indeed it is so near that of the reeds, that it 
can scarcely be observed when lying among them.” 
William Harrison. 1577.—William Harrison was a canon 
of Windsor, who, among other things, wrote an account of 
the birds of England, which is prefixed to ‘ Holinshed’s 
Chronicles,” and which, though short, is from its early 
date, very important. He has a good deal to tell us about 
birds generally, particularly about the birds of prey, under 
the head of ‘‘ Hawkes and Rauenous Foules.” After 
first describing the Golden Eagle’s nest at Castle Dinas 
Bran in Denbighshire, originally recorded by John Leland, 
the antiquary, he continues :—‘‘ I have seen the carren crowes 
so cunning also by their own industry of late, that they used 
to soar over great rivers (as the Thames, for example), and 
suddenly coming down have caught a small fish in their feet 
and gone away withall without wetting of their wings. And 
even at this present the aforesaid river is not without some of 
them, a thing in my opinion not a little to be wondered at. 
We have also ospraies, which breed with us in parks and woods, 
whereby the keepers of the same do reap in breeding time no 
small commodity : for so soon almost as the young are hatched, 
they tie them to the butt ends or ground ends of sundry trees, 
where the old ones finding them, do never cease to bring 
fish unto them, which the keepers take and eat from them, 
and commonly is such as is well fed, or not of the worst sort.” + 
It would seem that in the Middle Ages the Osprey was 
very much commoner in the British Isles than it is at the 
present day. That it was plentiful in England in the six- 
teenth century is certainly implied by William Turner, to 
whom it was probably no unfamiliar sight, although he does 
not actually say that he had met with it, contenting himself 
with the comment that the Osprey was “a bird much better 
known to-day to Englishmen than many who keep fish in 
* A nest containing twelve eggs cannot have belonged to a Bittern. 
{ Edition 1807, Vol. I., p. 582. 
M 
