80 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



no such aid in making a living, or need of it, as it is not 

 nocturnal in its habits, the anonymous reviewer writes: 



It is called by Wilson the great American bittern, but, what 

 is very extraordinary, he omits to mention that it has the power 

 of emitting a light from its breast, equal to the light of a 

 common torch, which illuminates the water so as to enable it 

 to discover its prey. ... I took some trouble to ascertain the 

 truth of this, which has been confirmed to me by several gentle- 

 men of undoubted veracity, and especially by Mr. Franklin 

 Peale, the proprietor of the Philadelphia Museum. 



A similar belief existed in the past in regard to the 

 osprey, which we in the United States call the fish-hawk. 

 Loskiel (Mission to the Indians, 1794) records it thus: 

 "They say that when it [the fish-hawk] hovers over the 

 water, it possesses a power of alluring the fish toward 

 the surface, by means of an oily substance contained in 

 its body. So much is certain, that, if a bait is touched 

 with this oil, the fish bite so greedily, that it appears as 

 if it were impossible for them to resist." How much 

 of this is native American, and how much is imported 

 it is hard to determine now. 



