THE AMERICAN OSPREY. 323 



Hawks' nests were very common; but here the cliffs and rocky ledges had 

 been taken advantage of, many of which were inaccessible, and all more or 

 less difficult to reach." 



The Osprey generally nests in the tops of trees of various kinds. In the 

 West I have found their nests mostly in very tall pines, the tops of which had 

 been broken off during a storm. Such trees were always selected in prefer- 

 ence to any others, even if they were some distance from a body of water, 

 The nest was invariably placed on the very top of the broken stump. Occa- 

 sionally I have seen one in a cottonwood. On the Little Red River in cen- 

 tral Arkansas, Mr. Gault informs me that the Fish Hawk nests in holes in 

 the sandstone bluffs along that stream, and I have seen them using similar 

 locations on the Upper Columbia River in Washington, where no timber is 

 found in close proximity to the river. 



The most picturesque nesting site of the Osprey I ever saw was located in 

 the midst of the American Falls of Snake River, Idaho. Right on the very 

 brink of these, and about one-third of the way across, the seething volume of 

 water, confined here between frowning walls of basalt, was cleft in twain by a 

 rocky obstruction which had so far withstood the ever eroding currents, and 

 this was capped with a slender and fairly tapering column of rock rising directly 

 out of the swirling and foaming whirlpool below. On the top of this natural 

 monument, whose apex appeared to me to be scarcely 2 feet wide, a pair of 

 Ospreys had placed their nest and were rearing their young amidst the never 

 ceasing roar of the falls directly below them. The nests are often rather 

 small considering the size of the bird, and usually not over 18 inches in outer 

 diameter. Nests which have been in use for a number of years, however, are 

 often quite bulky and very firmly built, in order to withstand the strong 

 gales to which they are frequently exposed. 



Mr. Manly Hardy found a nest of this species on a high bluff placed 

 between three stumps; the nest was a large one and constructed principally 

 out of shreds of cedar bark; it contained two fully grown young. Another 

 nest found by him was placed on a bare ledge of rock just above high tide. 

 This was constructed entirely of kelp stalks and contained one young bird just 

 able to fly. 



In central Florida nidification is said to begin, some seasons at least, in 

 January, and probably earlier still in the southern portions of the State, and it 

 continues into March and the beginning of April, while in the more northern 

 parts, like St. Johns and Putnam Counties, according to Dr. William L. Ralph's 

 observations, the Osprey rarely nests before March 1, and usually in the latter 

 part of this month. Mr. C. J. Pennock found several nests of the Osprey near 

 St. Marks, Florida, containing fresh eggs in the first week of April, 1889. 

 These nests were all placed in high trees, pines or cypress, and all but one in 

 living trees. In Lower California the nesting season begins in February and 

 lasts until the beginning of May. In northern Idaho I usually found full sets 

 of fresh eggs the first week in May, the same holding good in Oregon and 

 Washington. On the middle Atlantic coast they also commence laying about 



