96 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



twenty or thirty times as abundant as they are 

 in northern New England. 



The osprey was also common on good fishing- 

 grounds, and scarcely a day passed without my 

 seeing both ospreys and eagles. One afternoon, 

 shortly before sunset, I saw an osprey rise from 

 the Bras d'Or with a good-sized fish in his claws. 

 I expected to see him take it to some point near 

 by, but instead he flew westward, high above the 

 trees, until finally he was lost in distance. 



I have already mentioned seeing marsh hawks. 

 None of the big buteos came near enough for me 

 to identify them, nor did I see a Cooper's hawk, 

 but, to my delight, sparrow hawks were not un- 

 common, and were comparatively fearless. The 

 first that we saw were in a large field near Middle 

 River. As we drove slowly along the road, a pair 

 of sparrow hawks frolicked in front of us. They 

 rose as we came near enough to see distinctly all 

 their handsome markings, and flew airily from 

 one perch on the fence to another a rod or two 

 farther on. They rose and fell, tilted, careened, 

 righted, tacked, made exquisite curves, and in 

 fact performed as many gi*aceful manoeuvres in 

 the air as a fine skater could on the ice, and 

 then came back to the fence and perched again. 

 I drove slowly in order not to frighten them, 

 and the result was that they rose and settled 

 ajrain before us more than a dozen times. 



