92 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Fig. 36. 



THE OSPREY. 



Pandion HaliceehLS. 



" The eagle awoke, 

 As slumbering he dozed on the shelve of the rock, 

 Astonished, to hide in the moonbeams he flew, 

 And screwed the night-heaven till lost in the blue." 



It is probable that the eagle of Hogg's poem, 

 slumbering on the shelf of the rock by the edge of 

 Loch Lomond, "and screwing the night-heaven 

 till Tost in the blue," was the Osprey, a not 

 uncommon bird in the wilder parts of Scotland, 

 and which, while frequenting cliffs by the sea, or 

 by the larger lakes, where it obtains its food, also 

 has the habit of rising spirally to a great height 

 before it sails away. In England it is only a casual 

 visitor, though it has been obtained in most of our 

 English counties, and is one of the birds recorded 

 by White in his " Natural History of Selbourne." 

 Living almost entirely on fish, it is indifferent 

 whether it obtains them from fresh or salt water, 

 and is as much at home on ocean cliffs as on those 

 near our larger lakes. The flight of the Osprey, 

 though somewhat like that of the Buzzard — in fact 

 it is called the Bald Buzzard by Izaak Walton — 

 is very easy and graceful. It rises in circles 



to a great height, hovers like 

 when it drops to take a fish, 



an m 



the Kestrel 

 it does so wit it 



astonishing rapidity, surpassing even the sea S wallo 

 in the celerity of its fall. Sometimes as it drop 

 it will suddenly suspend its fall, a sign that 

 intended prey has escaped. It falls with so muc | 

 force that it becomes completely covered with 

 water,, but it has no difficulty in rising again, ai I 

 after a few strokes it shakes the water from i | 

 plumage, 



" Like eagles, when the storm is done, 

 Shaking their wet wings in the sun." 



As the Skieas rob the Gulls, so does the Whi 

 headed Eagle sometimes rob the Osprey,- and 

 retaliation the Ospreys have been known to un 

 and drive the robber from their fishing groui 

 Some observers say the Osprey never attempts fc 

 take its prey a second time if it escape on< ^ 

 others declare that they have seen the fish captu; ^ 



