The osprey is now rare in Great Britain, though it breeds occasionally in the wilder parts of Scotland. It enjoys an extensive range, however, being found all over the world. In America it appears to be very common. On an island "off the eastern extremity of Long Island, New York," writes Professor Newton, "300 nests were counted. The old birds were rearing their young close together, living as peaceably as so many rooks, and were equally harmless to other birds." Colonies of this kind are rare among birds of prey.
Whilst the fiercer raptorial birds, which hunt and kill their prey, live only upon small or medium-sized animals, a certain section, known as the Vultures, feed upon the carcases of the largest mammals which they find either in the throes of death or already dead, and even far advanced in decomposition. Gathering to the feast in large crowds, even the largest bodies are soon demolished; and on this account the vultures are to be reckoned amongst the most useful of birds, speedily removing matter which in hot countries would rapidly endanger the health of neighbouring communities.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S] [Milford-on-Sea.
AUSTRALIAN OSPREY.
This species of osprey is confined to Australia and the Austro-Malay Islands.
Many years ago a great controversy was waged over the question of the faculty which guides the vulture in the discovery of its food, since it was a matter of common knowledge that the traveller might sweep the horizon in vain for a sign of these birds, yet, should a camel from a caravan fall out and die, or men fall in warfare, within an incredibly short space of time a crowd of vultures would be squabbling over the dead. Some held that the vulture was guided by scent, others by sight, and this latter view is now almost universally accepted. The bird's natural habit of soaring at an immense height enables it to survey not only immense tracts of country, but the actions of its neighbours soaring at the same altitude, though perhaps miles away. So soon as one descries food it betrays the fact by its actions, making off in the direction of the prospective feast; it is then followed immediately by its yet more distant neighbour, and this by a third, and so the first serves as a guide to all the other soaring birds for miles around. This flight has been admirably expressed by Longfellow in "Hiawatha."
We need here mention only one or two of the more important species of vulture, and among these one of the most interesting is the Lammergeir, or Bearded Vulture. This species is one of the least vulture-like of the tribe, not only in general appearance, but also in habits, and is to be regarded as near the ancestral stock, whose descendants have become more and more addicted to feeding upon dead bodies.
The lammergeir, or bearded vulture, is a bird of large size and majestic flight, differing from all other vultures in that the head and neck are clothed in feathers, whilst the nostrils are covered by long bristles. Beneath the bill hangs a tuft of bristles like those covering the nostrils; hence its name of Bearded Vulture; and this, coupled with a remarkable red rim to the eyes, gives the bird an almost diabolical appearance. It lives partly upon living animals and partly upon carrion, bones apparently being especially relished; these it breaks by dropping them from a height upon the rocks below, probably to get at the marrow. Land-tortoises are treated in a similar manner, and it was possibly this species which caused the death of the poet Æschylus, on whose bare head a tortoise is alleged to have been dropped. It was at one time common in Europe, and is still fairly numerous in West Africa, though rare in the East and South. Many stories are told of its strength and daring, some of which concern the carrying off of young children; but these are probably mythical, modern observers generally agreeing that the bird is by nature far from courageous.
