124 



THE OSPREY. 



THE OSPREY OR FISHHAWK; ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITS.— VII. 



ISy Theodore Gii.i.. Washington, D. C. 



Continual from Vol. V, p. ro6. 



A superstition somewhat current is mentioned 

 by Mr. Howard Staunton in his edition (1857- 

 1866) of the Plays of Shakespeare. It is that the 

 bird has the power of influencing or "fascinat- 

 ing" a fish. The lines from Shakespeare at the 

 head of the present monograph were supposed 

 to have a recondite meaning and allusion to this 

 supposed faculty. Thus, the Rev. Charles 

 Swainson, in his "Provisional Names and Folk 

 L.u,- of British Birds" (p. 141). treats the belief 

 as follows: 



• Shakespeare alludes to the osprey in Cor- 

 iolanus, Act IV. sc. vii. 



"Aufidius loq. * A -■ i -■ 1 1 sprey to the fish who takes it 



itv sovereignty ol nature. 1 



'Here.' says Mr. Staunton, 'the image is 

 founded on the fabulous power attributed to the 

 osprey of fascinating the fish on which it preys. 

 Thus in Peek's play called The Battle of Alca- 

 zar {1594), Act II., sc. i.: 



I wii; provide thee ot ;i princely ospray, 

 That as she flieth over Bsh in pools, 

 The flsh shall turn their glistening bellies up. 

 Ami thou shalt take thy liberal choice of all." 



"And also in Drayton. Polyolbion, songxxv. — 



" "I'he osprey. oft here seen, tho' seldom here ii breeds, 

 Which ever them the Bsh no sooner do espy 

 But betwixt him and them by an antipathy. 

 Turn ng their bellies up as though their death they saw, 

 They at his pleasure lie to stuff his gluttonous maw." 



The Rev. Mr. Swainson lias also resurrected a 

 strange conceit respecting a lopsidededuess of 

 the osprey. 



"An old belief is mentioned by Harrison, 

 in his 'Description of Britain,' prefixed to 

 Holinshcd's 'Chronicle,' vol. i. p. 382, who 

 writes respecting the osprey, 'It hath not beene 

 my hap hitherto to see anie of these foules, and 

 partlie through mine owne negligence; but I 

 heare that it hath one foot like a hawke to catch 

 hold withall. and another resembling a goose. 

 wherewith to swim; but whether it be so or not 

 so, I refer the further search and trial thereof 

 to some other.' Giraldus Cambrensis ('Topog- 

 raphy of Ireland.' p. 38, ed. Wright) improves 

 on this, moralising as follows: — 'In like man- 

 ner the old enemy of mankind fixes his keen 

 eyes on us. however we may try to conceal our- 

 selves in the troublesome waves of this present 

 world, and ingratiating himself with us by 

 temporal prosperity, which may be compared to 

 the peaceable foot, the cruel spoiler then puts 

 forth his ravenous claws to clutch miserable 

 souls and drag them to perdition.' " 



Hoi in shell's Chronicle, be it known, was origi- 

 nally published in 1577. 



No legends or folk lore relating to this bird 

 among the French have been recorded by Eugene 

 Rollanrl in his Faune Populaire de la France 

 although a number of popular names current in 



different parts are given. (Consult Les Oiseaux 

 Sauvages, p. 8. ) 



Here it may be noted that the Rev. Mr. 

 Swainson has affirmed that in an unnamed part 

 of "Italy." the < >sprey is said to be known by a 

 designation whose significance can be well ap- 

 preciated by one who has seen the bird precipi- 

 tating itself on its prey il is "Angiusta pluui- 

 beria." Mr. Swainson says that this means "the 

 leaden eagle." and that it is so named "because 

 its sudden descent on its prey is like the fall of 

 lead." It is proper to add that the name is not 

 enumerated among the popular names recorded 

 bv Giglioli in his "Avifauna Italica," and that 

 the words themselves are not to be found in 

 ordinary Italian dictionaries. 



VARIATION AMONG 



ISPRKYS. 



There are three well marked variations coin- 

 cident with differences of geographical range 

 among the representatives of the genus Pandion. 

 The variants are characteristic respectively of 

 (2) America, (II Eurasia, and (3) Australia. 

 They have been distinguished or differentiated 

 in the following' order: 



1. Tlie Eurasiatic form, is of course, that to 

 which the name palco haliaetus was originally 

 given. The binomial compound, Pandon hali- 

 aetus, was first published by Cuvier in 1817. 



2. The American form was first named from 

 different representatives as two varieties of 

 " Fa/co haliaelos" under two designations by 

 Gmelin in 1788; those names are carolinehsis 

 and cayennensis, the former being" ranked as 

 variety y and the latter as variety 8. These 

 names are not the expressions of advance of 

 knowledge Or keenness of appreciation but, like 

 very many other new names introduced by the 

 same author, of imperfect knowledge, miscon- 

 seption and rash conclusions: no real differen- 

 tial characters were given. The variety caroli- 

 nensis was based on the "Fish-hawk" of Catesby 

 (Catesb. Carol, i. t. 1.") or rather the "Var. A. 

 Carolina O." of Latham (Syn. i, p. 46) and the 

 cayennensis on "Var. 15. N. S. Cayenne O." of 

 Latham (Syn. i. p. 47) 



These names of Gmelin have been quoted as 

 used by him in a specific sense {Falco cdroli- 

 nensis" and "Falco cayennensis") but the facts 

 are as stated above. This condition is to be 

 especially considered* because Gmelin named 

 another "Falco" "Falco cayennensis" (p. 269) 

 also based on a bird described by Latham as the 

 "Cayenne Falcon" and which is the Leptodon 

 cayennensis of recent authors. It may be added 

 that the old naturalists did not intend to have 

 their names given to varieties used as specific 

 and could not have forseen the extent of such 

 usage by their distant successors. Their imme- 

 diate successors, when raising a named variety 



tAimnw others, the "American Ornithologists' Union,' 

 have fallen into this error. 



in the "Check-list of North American Birds" (2d ed.. p. 141). 



