THE OSPREY. 547 



plenty of fish in the water, and those as good as ever were 

 caught. Is not the wide waste of waters at its command ? 

 Is it not the most skillful of fishermen ? Why worry then 

 over a mishap or failure ! Even if the Eagle, on the alert, 

 swoop down upon it, and compel it to drop its well-earned 

 prey, it will submit with comparative coolness. This rob- 

 bery by the Eagle, however, probably does not occur nearly 

 so often as one might infer from the books. 



There is no doubt that the Osprey sometimes miscalculates 

 the size and strength of the fish he would seize, and strik- 

 ing into it his sharp and much curved claws, is neither able 

 to raise the fish nor yet to extricate himself, and so is 

 drawn under to perish with his prey in his grasp, the rem- 

 nants of both being thrown up on the shore together; or 

 the surviving fish may be afterwards caught bearing the 

 skeleton or remains of the Hawk on its back. 



The nest of the Fish Hawk is a common appurtenance of 

 the landscape, along the coast under consideration. No eye 

 can miss it, for it is an immense affair, built of sticks, 

 coarse weeds and rubbish in general, lined with sea-grass, 

 the whole being sufficient in quantity to fill a good-sized 

 dump-cart. It is placed in a tree anywhere from 10-50 feet 

 from the ground. If the tree be not dead when chosen, it 

 does not long survive the huge v/et pile, generally containing 

 no small quantity of material from the salt water; and as 

 the bulk is increased by repairs, not only in spring before 

 incubation, but also in the fall before the birds depart, the 

 foundations give way in time, and the unsightly mass is 

 precipitated to the ground. I was informed of one of these 

 nests being built on the top of an old chimney, after the 

 manner of the European Stork. The eggs, generally 3, 

 sometimes 2 or 4, are about 2.39X1.76, creamy white, 

 sharply spotted and blotched with light-brown and umber, 



