278 WILD WINGS 



suddenly darted on to the nest and I made the exposure, 

 without causing her to fly. It would have been successful, 

 save that, in setting the camera, I had accidentally exposed 

 the plate, and so had a double picture. A subsequent at- 

 tempt was entirely successful, though the hawk almost found 

 me out, for she alighted close above my head and kept 

 me lying face downward for ten minutes without moving 

 a muscle, while the swarms of mosquitoes were doing their 

 worst. 



Since then I have learned that hawks — notably the larger 

 kinds — seem to know when a person has not left the woods, 

 and will often refuse to approach the nest until one has really 

 gone. The best way to deceive them in such a case is to take 

 a companion to the spot, get well hidden, and then have the 

 other noisily withdraw. 



The magnificent Osprey, or Fish Hawk, is another species 

 which, in the latitude of New England, lays its eggs in early 

 May. Osprey " hawking " is very diflerent from what I have 

 been describing. Nests are often placed in solitary trees on 

 open land near water, sometimes close to a house, as is the 

 case in southern New England. I have seen one on the cross- 

 piece of a telephone pole, and they have been built on chim- 

 neys or other strange places. The nests are usually enormous, 

 and it is frequently ver}' difficult to get above to photograph 

 them. Meanwhile the old birds will sometimes menace one 

 in the most ferocious manner, though I never knew one 

 actually to strike. They generally lay three eggs, rarely four, 

 verv heavilv and strikingly marked. 



I have also studied Osprey s on various parts of our South- 

 ern coast, where they nest in pineries or swamps, often in the 

 vicinitv of nests of the Bald Eagle. They are often tame 

 enough to alight on the nest when one is standing beneath it, 

 and many a camera-shot have I fired at the hovering birds. 



