WHITE-HEADED OSPREY (FISH-HAWK). 
of vast circumference and great interior capacity, the branches of trees and 
other matter, of which each nest was composed, being enough to fill a small 
cart. Captain Cook (see ‘ Hawkesworth,’ Vol. HI., p. 195) found one of these 
enormous nests upon Eagle Island, on the East Coast ; and if the magnitude 
of the constructor be proportionate to the size of the nest. Terra Australis 
must be inhabited by a species of bird little inferior to the condor of the 
Andes. 
“ P. 81 : Upon a rock on the side of the hill I found a large nest, very 
similar to those seen in King George’s Sound. There were in it several 
masses resembling those which contain the hair and bones of mice and are 
disgorged by the owls in England after their flesh is digested. These masses 
were larger and consisted of the hair of seals and of land animals, of the scaly 
feathers of pinguins, and the bones of birds and small quadrupeds. Possibly 
the constructor of the nest might be an enormous owl : and if so, the cause 
of the bird being never seen, while the nests were not scarce, would be from 
its not going out until dark ; but from the very open and exposed situations 
in which the nests were found I should rather judge it to be of the eagle 
kind, and that its powers are such as to render it heedless of any attempts 
from the natives upon its young.” 
These notes were made in January, 1802, in South-west Australia, and on 
September 14th, 1818, Louis de Freycinet in the History of the “ Uranie et 
Physicienne,” Vol. I., p. 456, speaks of a “ espece de tourelle ronde, haute de 
six pieds.” He figures it in the “Atlas,” pi. 13. He also describes the eggs and 
remarks on the remains of the birds’ food being at the base of the nest. 
Campbell gives a photo of one of the huge structures which is 
unquestionably an Osprey’s nest, and another photo appears in the Emu, 
Vol. I., p. 144, pi. ix., of the same nest. I have not noticed whether the localities 
recorded by Cook and Flinders have been revisited or whether the nests are 
in existence. A few other notes mainly concern themselves with the size 
of the nests and the coloration of the beautiful eggs, but few observations 
regarding the birds themselves have been recorded. 
Gould’s notes read : “ The White-headed Osprey, though not an abundant 
species, is generally diffused over every portion of Australia suited to its 
habits ; I myself shot it in Recherche Bay, at the extreme south of Tasmania ; 
and Gilbert found it breeding both at Swan River on the western, and at 
Port Essington on the northern shore of Australia. ... It takes up its abode 
on the borders of rivers, lakes, inlets of the sea, and the small islands lying 
off the coast. Its food consists entirely of living fish, which it procures 
precisely after the manner of the other members of the genus, by plunging 
down upon its victims from a considerable height in the air with so true an 
VOL. V. 
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