THE OSPREY. 



61 



Cation here doubtless will be welcomed. This 

 is done with all its peculiarities. 



"My dear Friend. Since the publication of the 

 first volume of my Ornithological Biography, in 

 which an account of the habits of the Fish-hawk 

 is given, I have had many opportunities of ex- 

 tending my acquaintance with it, and have 

 traced it along the whole extent of the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States, and even as far north 

 as Labrador, where it breeds. I have the greatest 

 pleasure of presenting you with the results of 

 my observations, which you may use in what- 

 ever way you please. 



"The difference between the periods at which 

 this species breeds along the coast, from the 

 Gulf of Mexico to the northern shores of the St. 

 Lawrence, is very great. While on the St. 

 John's River in Florida, on the 7th February 

 1832, I found the Fish-hawks very abundant, 

 and all sitting on their eggs, many of which 

 contained chicks nearly ready for emerging. 

 The birds, therefore, must have paired at least 

 six weeks previous to that date. I was, how- 

 ever, surprised to find them more tardy in this 

 respect than the White-headed Eagles, which 

 had young able to fly. Three hundred miles 

 farther south, the Fish-hawks had laid their 

 eggs a month earlier. Between the Floridas 

 and New Jersey. or in the districts usually 

 called the Middle States, they rarely begin to 

 lay before the 15th of April. In the State of 

 Maine, they seldom arrive before the middle of 

 May. and in Labrador the period of their ap- 

 pearance is from the 1st to the 10th of June. It 

 wiiuklbe interesting to discover whether the 

 Fish-hawk which breeds near the mouth of the 

 Mississippi in January, breeds again in the 

 course of the same season between that place 

 and Labrador, or not. I havethought it not un- 

 likely that it dnes. but have no facts to support 

 the opinion. 



"The Fish-hawk is far from always placing 

 its nest on very high tre<»s, but accommodates 

 itself t<i any situation that may occur, provided 

 other circumstances are favourable. On the 

 Kevs of the Floridas, it- nest is often seen 

 placed on a mangrove not more than seven or 

 eight feet above the water. In two instances I 

 saw it there on the ground, and once on the 

 roof of a low house. In the latter case, the nest 

 had been resorted to three successive years. In 

 Labrador the nests which I saw were built on 

 the stunted firs, there being no trees in the 

 country deserving" the name. In the Floridas, 

 I saw several nests placed close to those of 

 herons, ibises, and cormorants, all the species 

 living together in the greatest harmony. 



"I remain, my dear Mr. Macgillivrav. your 

 most sincerely attached friend, and obedient 

 servant, 



•■J. J. Audubon. 



"Edinburgh, \SthJune 1835." 



It is only necessary to express dissent from 

 Audubon's opinion that the bird may breed in 

 two different places — north and south — in the 

 same year. 



PAIRING. 



It has been said that, like raptorial birds in 

 general, "The Osprey pairs for life and returns 



yearly to its old breeding grounds. " (Seebohm's 

 British Birds, I. 59. i No direct evidence has 

 been adduced in support of the statement and, 

 indeed, it is not clear how conclusive testimony 

 could be easily obtained. Except in isolated 

 cases, one bird can not be distinguished from 

 another. If either a male or female of a pair is 

 shot or killed, the survivor may find a mate and 

 ha- been observed to do so. The general state- 

 ment that two birds pair for life may be true, 

 but nevertheless is generally the expression of 

 an assumption or unverified hypothesis. Veri- 

 fication can only be obtained by experimentation 

 and permanent marking. The only- evidence 

 on record as to the Osprey is contained in two 

 statements as to other facts published by Wilson 

 and in a recent number of the Osi'KKV which are 

 reproduced in another section. 



COURTSHIP. 



The emotions of love by the ' >sprey are man- 

 ifested, according to Audubon, "in a different 



way from those of other Falcons. The males 

 are seen playing through the air among them- 

 selves, chasing each other in sport, or sailing 

 by the side or after the female which they have 

 selected, uttering cries of joy and exultation, 

 alighting on the branches of the tree on which 

 their last year's nest is yet seen remaining and 

 doubtless congratulating each other on finding 

 their home again. Their caresses are mutual. 

 They begin to augment their habitation, or to 

 repair the injuries which it may have sustained 

 during the winter, and are seen sailing together 

 toward- the shores, to collect the drifted sea- 

 weeds with which they line the nest anew." 



CONST VNCY OF M VTES. 



It is generally supposed that the male birds 

 consort for life, anil a pathetic story is told of 

 the sad voluntary loneliness of one of a pair 

 who had been bereft of a mate by an accident. 

 "Near Little Silver, in an ■■pen hillside field 

 which slop,- gently down to the highway, there 



st 1 in the early summer of 1876 a small group 



of tall locust trees upon one of which a pair of 

 Ospreys had their abode. At a time when one 

 of the birds, presumably female, was on the 

 nest, a bolt of lightning struck the tree, killing 

 the bird and demolishing the nest. Strangely 

 enough, the other Osprey, when returning only 

 to find his home desolated, took up his station 

 upon the top of one of the uninjured trees close 

 at hand, and throughout the remainder of the 

 summer, was seen day after day, month after 

 month, keeping his lonely vigil, apparently 

 mourning the loss of his mate. By those who 

 lived in the vicinity' it was asserted that he was 

 never missing from his post; and many were 

 the speculations indulged with regard to the 

 manner of his subsistence. Some inclined to 

 the opinion that he went fishing very early in 

 the morning and so escaped observation; while 

 others supposed him to have been fed by other 

 Fish-hawks who took pity on his lonely state. 

 Perhaps both vrere true, but the former seemed 

 more probable". 

 • 



(To be Continued.) 



