AMERICAN OSPREY 355 



wholly different from the ordinary musical outcry of his kind. All this was kept 

 up fully fifteen minutes. Of course it represented the characteristic love-flight 

 of the Osprey, often witnessed at the Lake in early spring, and not unlike that 

 performed by several other species of Hawks found in New England. Finally a 

 female Osprey appeared, swinging around and around in wide circles a thousand 

 feet below the other bird. He, however, continued to hover, flutter, and scream 

 at his former level. 



Nesting. — What was once, probably, the largest known breeding 

 colony of ospreys formerly existed on Plum Island at the eastern end 

 of Long Island, N. Y. Charles Slover Allen (1892) gives a very 

 interesting account of this colony, which had been protected for many 

 years by the former owners, the Jerome family. When Mr. Allen 

 first visited this island in 1879, Mr. Jerome "claimed that fully two 

 thousand nightly roosted on the island, and that over five hundred 

 nests had been built there." But Mr. Allen "finally reduced these 

 numbers one half." In 1885, this island "was sold to a syndicate 

 who planned the construction of large hotels and cottages ; since then 

 all has completely changed." 



Probably most of the ospreys from Plum Island moved over to 

 Gardiners Island, only a few miles distant, which now holds the 

 largest breeding colony of which we have any record. The size of 

 this colony has been variously estimated, but I doubt if any accu- 

 rate census has ever been taken. Good descriptions of this colony 

 have been written by Dr. Frank M. Chapman (1908), who estimated 

 the number of nests as 150 to 200; by Clinton G. Abbott (1911), who 

 estimated 200 nests; and by Capt. C. W. R. Knight (1932), who 

 thought the number exceeded 300, Gardiners Island is about 7 miles 

 long and 3 miles wide and contains about 3,000 acres. 



Our scattered colony, in southern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode 

 Island, could now be covered by a circle 8 miles in diameter, and 

 contains about 60 occupied nests, possibly a few more; it formerly 

 covered more than twice this area and contained much more than 

 twice this number of nests. 



Bendire (1892) mentions a colony on Seven Mile Beach in south- 

 ern New Jersey, in which "several hundred pairs have nested every 

 season." In other parts of the country the colonies are usually 

 smaller, or more scattered. Mr. Abbott (1911) found a colony of 

 30 nests at Great Lake, N. C, in 1909. 



Donald J. Nicholson tells me that in 1910 there were at least 75 

 occupied ospreys' nests in the cypresses around Lake Istokpoga in 

 Florida; and in Volusia County "possibly hundreds of their nests 

 can be found in the cypress swamps near Maytown, 30 being visible 

 from a lofty cypress." William G. Fargo writes to me of a colony 

 of 12 or more nests that he found near Old Tampa Bay, Fla., "of 

 which at least nine were within an area of about 100 acres," 



