184 
OSPREY. 
chestnut trees, we think, serve for a support. 
The eyries we have seen and examined were, 
however, always placed on the summit of the ruin, 
though trees, aged, high, and stumped, were fre- 
quent in the vicinity. These nests are returned to 
year after year, and though one of the partners is 
often shot, the summer has not half run before 
another has been obtained. The eggs are of a 
more lengthened form than what we generally 
see among the Falconidae, and are yellowish 
white, thickly spotted, or blotched with yellowish 
brown. (See Plate XI. fig. 2.) 
When fishing, it flies, with a slow and rather 
heavy and laborious flight, along the stream or 
lake, until its attention is arrested, when it 
balances itself by a rapid motion of the wings, 
and with the tail expanded. Before striking, a 
descent is generally made nearer the water, and 
a renewed inspection is continued, after which 
the dash or plunge is made with closed wings, 
and the body is sometimes immersed, and gene- 
rally quite obscured by the spray of the plunge. 
If unsuccessful, the bird rises, shakes the water 
from its plumage in the air, and after a circle 
around, returns to resume its survey. If, how- 
ever, the prey has been struck, we have always 
seen it fly directly to some distant hill or rock, 
where it is devoured. It is never carried to the 
shore and immediately eaten : but from the 
