OSPREY. 59 



bird's attackj the Osprey's feet exhibit certain well-marked peculiarities. 

 The outer toe is reversible^ the claws are remarkably curved and sharp, 

 and the soles of the feet are very rough, all assisting the bird to grasp its 

 food with great certainty and precision. From their peculiar structure 

 the claws of the Osprey do not tear the tender flesh of its prey, nor are 

 they easily withdrawn when once they are inserted — a circumstance which 

 has not unfrequently been known to cost the bird its life, by fastenrug to 

 a fish too large for it to lift from the water. The food of the Osprey is 

 composed of various kinds of fish. When its habitation is near the fresh 

 waters, trout, salmon, roach, carp, pike, bream, rudd, &c. are eaten, the 

 first-named fish (the brown or lake-trout) in Scotland forming its favourite 

 food. In maritime districts the Osprey feeds on shad, flounders, &c., and 

 has been known to strike at large sturgeon. The fish when seized is 

 always carried lengthwise in its talons — a position consequent upon the 

 easiest way of approaching and taking it, not, it is probable, because it 

 would at all impede the bird's flight if carried crosswise ; for, once the 

 claws are inserted in the fish, there they remain until it is eaten or torn 

 in pieces. 



Like raptorial birds in general, the Osprey pairs for life and returns 

 yearly to its old breeding-grounds. When the Osprey was a common bird 

 in Scotland it almost invariably chose some rocky islet in the mountain- 

 lochs, or built its bulky citadel on some commanding battlement or 

 chimney-stack of an old ruin surrounded by the waters. These nests were 

 so regularly tenanted that quite a historical interest attached to them ; 

 and even now of late years, when the Osprey is almost only known as a 

 tradition, the situations of its former eyries are pointed out as objects of 

 no small amount of interest. In many parts of the world, however, the 

 Osprey builds in trees ; and in America, where it is such an abundant 

 species, it occasionally breeds in colonies. This habit of arboreal nest- 

 building appears to be followed by the British birds ; and what few eyries 

 do now exist at the present day in Scotland are for the most part in 

 pine trees. 



There are few scenes more wildly picturesque than an Osprey's eyrie, 

 nor so well worth a visit, a sight of its wild surroundings and grand 

 solitude amply recompensing the observer for the usually hard and weari- 

 some tramp over hill and bog ere he can reach it. Should it be on some 

 old ruinous keep or dungeon, water-surrounded and safe from enemies, 

 far among mountain-solitudes, or in the silent deer-forest, on the tree- 

 clad slopes sweeping so grandly away into dreamy indistinctness, sur- 

 rounded by almost impregnable morasses and rocky glens, in all its 

 interest is the same. Wherever the bird builds its castle the locality 

 gains an untold interest, receives a sense of life and animation. From 

 the great weight and bulkiness of the Osprey's nest, and from the fact 



