OSPREY. 117 



lijive recourse to the brief and imperfect accounts of 

 them presented in the writings of Montagu and Mr 

 Selby. According to these writers, the Osprey Hies 

 heavily, not much unlike the buzzard, but not unfre- 

 quently glides slowly along Avith motionless wing. In 

 searching for food it sometimes hovers over the water, 

 supporting itself by short and rapid motions of the 

 wings, readily perceptible even at a considerable dis- 

 tance, its weight being probably too great to allow it 

 to poise itself with the ease displayed by the kestrel 

 and other small hawks. Montagu observed one hawk- 

 ing for fish over the river Avon, at Aveton Gifford, 

 when, after remaining stationary for some time in the 

 air, it descended to within about fifty yards of the sur- 

 face, hovered there for a short interval, and then 

 plunged into the water with such force as to be nearly 

 immersed. In three or four seconds it rose with a 

 trout of moderate size, and soared to a prodigious 

 height. Mr Stevenson informs me, that the individuals 

 occasionally found on the Tweed are not permanent 

 residents, but are seen there only in autumn. He adds, 

 that they hover over the stream while in search of their 

 prey, plunge headlong after it so as sometimes to dis- 

 appear for a while under the surface, and, when sa- 

 tiated, repose on old trees or stumps on the banks of 

 the river. 



The habits of the Osprey, although, probably on ac- 

 count of the very unfrequent occurrence of that bird in 

 Britain, they have not been fully described by any of 

 our ornithologists, have yet been minutely detTiiled by 

 Wilson aud Mr Audubon, as observed in America, 

 where the species is very extensively distributed. 



