fish is carried to a convenient bluff or tree and
torn to bits. The Bald Eagle often robs him of the fish by seizing it,
or startling him so that he looses his hold.

The Osprey when fishing makes one of the most breezy, spirited
pictures connected with the feeding habits of any of our birds, as
often there is a splashing and a struggle under water when the fish
grasped is too large or the great talons of the bird gets entangled.
He is sometimes carried under and drowned, and large fish have been
washed ashore with these birds fastened to them by the claws.

Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright says: "I found an Osprey's nest in a crooked
oak on Wakeman's Island in late April, 1893. As I could not get close
to the nest (the island is between a network of small creeks, and the
flood tides covered the marshes,) I at first thought it was a
monstrous crow's nest, but on returning the second week in May I saw a
pair of Ospreys coming and going to and fro from the nest. I hoped the
birds might return another season, as the nest looked as if it might
have been used for two or three years, and was as lop-sided as a
poorly made haystack. The great August storm of the same year broke
the tree, and the nest fell, making quite a heap upon the ground.
Among the debris were sticks of various sizes, dried reeds, two bits
of bamboo fishing rod, seaweeds, some old blue mosquito netting, and
some rags of fish net, also about half a bushel of salt hay in various
stages of decomposition, and malodorous dirt galore."

It is well known that Ospreys, if not disturbed, will continue
indefinitely to heap rubbish upon their nests till their bulk is very
great. Like the Owls they can reverse the rear toe.

THE SORA RAIL.

Various are the names required to distinguish the little slate-colored
Carolina Rail from its brethren, Sora, Common Rail, and, on the
Potomac river, Ortolan, being among them. He is found throughout
temperate North America, in the weedy swamps of the Atlantic states in
great abundance, in the Middle states, and in California. In Ohio he
is a common summer resident, breeding in the extensive swamps and wet
meadows. The nest is a rude affair made of grass and weeds, placed on
the ground in a tussock of grass in a boggy tract of land, where there
is a growth of briers, etc., where he may skulk and hide in the wet
grass to elude observation. The nest may often be discovered at a
distance by the appearance of the surrounding grass