RAPTURES FALCONIDAE P. HALIAETUS VAR. CAKOLINENS1S. 415 



PANDION HALIAETUS (Liun.), var. CAROLINENSIS, Grnel. 



Fish Hawk. 



Falco carolinensis, GMEL., Syst. Nat., 1789, 263 



Pandion carolinensis, NEWB., P. R. R. Rep., x, pt. vi, 1857, 75. BD., U. S. & Mex. Bound. 

 Surv., ii, pt. ii, 1859. Birds, 4. HEERM., P. R. R. Rep., x, pt. iv, 1859, 31. 

 COOP. & SUCKL., P. R. R. Rep., xii, pt. ii, 1860, 153. COUES, Proc. Acad- 

 Nat. Sci. Phila., 1866, 49 (Colorado River, Arizona). SNOW, Birds Kan., 

 1872, 4. MEREIAM, U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., 1872, G98. 



Pandion lialicctus var. carolinensis, BD., BREW., & RIDG., N. A. Birds, iii, 1874, 184. 

 HENSHAW, Rep. Orn. Specs., 1873, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 138. 



Pandion halia-tus, WOODH., Sitgreave's Exp. Zuiii & Col. Riv., 1854, 59. HENRY, 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, 105 (New Mexico). COUES, Key N. A. 

 Birds, 1872, 219. Id., Birds Northwest, 1874, 367. 



The Fish Hawk, though better known as a bird of the coast, is 

 found in the West on all of the large rivers and bodies of water, and is 

 not rare on the smaller streams as they issue from the mountains, which, 

 though known as rivers, scarcely deserve this title if measured by the 

 small quantity of water they carry down. On the Gila River, which is 

 plentifully stocked with fish, some of large size, the Fish Hawks are quite 

 numerous; and, in following its many devious windings and turnings upward 

 toward its mountain sources, I noticed at short intervals these hawks, 

 sometimes solitary, sometimes in pairs, either sitting on the top of some 

 dead tree overlooking their fishing ground, or hovering just above the water, 

 and scanning the shallows with anxious eyes, ready to pounce down on a 

 victim as soon as opportunity should offer. Unlike the majority of the 

 large birds of prey, isolation and freedom from persecution seem to have 

 had no effect on the nature of this bird; and those I saw in this region were 

 just as shy and suspicious of our appearance as though experience had 

 taught them the treatment birds of their class usually receive at the hands 

 of man. 



