88 G. II. Merriam — Birds of Connecticut. 



best Ornithologists, to be specifically distinct. As long ago as 1861 

 Dr. Wood published the following: " The difference in size is no 

 more than frequently occurs in birds of the same species. The shape 

 and general form, the small claws, the same habits in every respect, 

 their arrival at the same time, associating and sailing together, the 

 plumage of the one running into the other as it changes, so that it is 

 difficult, if not impossible, to tell where the dividing line comes, some 

 being jet-black, others not quite as dark, others slightly mixed, some 

 more so, certainly make a strong case in favor of their identity."* 

 Three years later the doctor wrote J. A. Allen that he had then taken 

 and examined about forty specimens, and could now state positively 

 that: " The Rough -legged Falcon and Black Hawk are the same.''''] 

 Both Baird and Coues, in their late works on our birds, state that the 

 examination of a large number of specimens leaves little doubt as to 

 the identity of the two forms under consideration, each using such 

 language as to indicate an original discovery dependant on his own 

 investigations, and neither alludes to the published records of Dr. 

 Wood, who, long before, arrived at the same conclusion, and from a 

 larger amount of material, and of better quality, than is to be found 

 in any other collection in the world. 



1 67. Pandion haliaetus (Liune) Cuvier. Fish Hawk ; Osprey. 



A summer resident, breeding abundantly along the coast, both on 

 the main land and on islands in the Sound. It is particularly abund- 

 ant during the spring migrations. It arrives late in March (March 

 28, 1877), remaining through October (Oct. 23). The migrants pass 

 northward during the latter part of April, and return again in Sep- 

 tember. Mr. Fred. Sumner Smith, of this city, tells me that a friend 

 of his found a Fish Hawk's nest in Heron Swamp (near New Haven) 

 as late as July 4th, (1S70). It w r as a small one, being little larger 

 than a bushel basket, was placed in a clump of thick bushes, and con- 

 tained three eggs. Mr. W. W. Coe informs me that they do not 

 breed so far up the Connecticut River as Middletown and Portland, 

 but are common at its mouth (about Saybrook), and that he has taken 

 their nests, along the Sound, all the way from Saybrook to New 

 London, Conn. " Immense lumbers of them breed regularly at 

 Plumb Island, Conn., where I saw, last spring, at least five hundred 

 nests, and over a thousand birds. There is only one small piece of 



♦Hartford Times, chap, xiv, June 22d, 1861. 



\ Allen's notes on some of the Rarer Birds of Mass., p. 14. 1869. 



