Class IL O S P R E Y. 175 



Mr. Willughby had exceeded in his account of its 

 weight •, but as we had an opportunity of confirm- 

 ing the words of the latter, from one of this fpecies 

 juft taken, we here reftore it to the aquiline rank, 

 under the name of the Ofprey : which was the name 

 it was known by in England above one hundred and 

 fixty years ago ; as appears by Dr. Kay^ or Caiu5*s 

 defcription of it, who alfo calls it an eagle. 



This bird haunts rivers, lakes, and the fea- 

 Ihores. It builds its neft on the ground among N e o t. 

 reeds, and lays three or four white eggs of an el- 

 liptical form ; rather lefs than thole of a hen. 

 It feeds chiefly on fifh *, taking them in the fame Food. 

 manner as the fea eagle does, by precipitating itfelf 

 on them, not by fwimming; its feet being formed 

 like thofe of other birds of prey, for the left is not 

 at all palmated, as fome copying the errors of anti- 

 ent writers, aflert it to be. The Italians compare 

 the violent defcent of this bird on its prey, to the 

 fall of lead into water, and call it, Auguifta pumhi- 

 na^ or the leaden eagle. 



The bird here defcribed was a female-, its weight De scrip. 

 was fixty-two ounces : the length twenty-three in- 

 ches : the breadth five feet four inches : the wing 

 when clofed reached beyond the end of the tail : 

 that, as in all the hawk kind, confifts of twelve 

 feathers : the two middle feathers v/ere dufky -, 



^ Turner fays it preys alfo on coots, and other water fowl. 



N 4 the 



