THE-C?nD?R 



Volume XIX July- August, 1917 Number 4 



THE OSPREYS OP THE YELLOWSTONE^ 



AUG 6- 1917 



By M. P. SKINNER 



WITH ONE PHOTO \ 



THE OLD-TIME beaver trappers, gold miners, and explorers in the West 

 were too oblivious of bird-life to leave us any records. But since the ear- 

 liest of the scientific parties to visit the Yellowstone record the abund- 

 ance of osprej^s*, we can assume that this region has always been a favorite 

 habitat for them. At the present time these birds attract a great deal of atten- 

 tion from tourists, who know them as "eagles". It is not strange that they 

 should, for the birds are living in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone where 

 che nests are plain to be seen and the ways of the birds are open to all who will 

 watch them. I know of no easier bird-study than this. One has but to find a 

 shady spot with a stone or a log for a seat; the birds are immediately below 

 one ; and there are no discomforts of wet feet, blazing heat, or insect pests. If 

 one wishes, a book can be taken along ; and always there is the wonderful scen- 

 ery of the Yellowstone Canyon, should both bird-study and book lose their in- 

 terest. It comes as near being "ornithology de luxe" as can be. 



Most of Yellowstone Park is an elevated lava plateau from which the 

 streams descend by waterfalls. Hence under natural conditions there were 

 formerly no fish above these falls with the exception of Yellowstone River and 

 Yellowstone Lake. It was along this river and its tributaries, the lake and the 

 lower parts of other streams, that the ospreys were abundant. In 1889 the 

 planting of trout in the formerly barren streams was begun. This stocking 

 was successful; all the principal streams now have fish, and the ospreys are 

 just beginning to establish their homes near them. The process is a slow one, 

 for the conservatism the osprey shows in nesting year after year on the same 

 site would prevent his rushing into new hunting grounds. In the two-mile See- 

 the American Osprey (Pandion haliaetus carolinensis) . 



