American Osprey. 265 



protecting its body from contact with the water. In 

 appearance it somewhat resembles the bald eagle, for its 

 head and neck are white, as well as its under parts, though 

 it lacks the white tail of the eagle. Instead of the flow- 

 ing plumage found on the flanks of the eagles and larger 

 hawks, the osprey has the tibise closely feathered — another 

 adaptation to its piscivorous habits, for the feathery " flags " 

 would absorb water and thus hinder the upward movement 

 of the bird laden with its prey. 



The social disposition of the ospreys is in marked con- 

 trast to the more reserved life of the eagles. Even in 

 their migration they discover their love of company. 

 When the first arrival of the season is descried soaring 

 far up in the sky, usually others can be seen circling in 

 the neighborhood, and the flute-like call of the first is 

 repeated by others within hearing. They seem to time 

 their arrival at any given point with the appearance of 

 the large shoals of fishes, which constitute their chief food, 

 and which apprise the fishermen that their vocation must 

 be resumed after the months of enforced idleness. In 

 " Our Birds in Their Haunts," Mr. Langille says that 

 their vernal and autumnal migrations along the middle 

 districts of the Atlantic seem singularly coincident with 

 the equinoxes, as they arrive about the twenty-first of 

 March and depart about the twenty-third of September. 

 In "Birds of Ontario," Thomas Mcllwraith thus writes 

 concerning their migrations: "The fish hawks arrive in 

 Ontario as soon as the ice breaks up in the spring, and 

 are soon distributed over the country. Here and there 

 in Ontario and elsewhere, a pair will settle and remain 

 for the summer, but many of them do not slack in their 

 northern flight till they are within the arctic circle, where 

 they rear their young on the banks of the clear streams 

 of the interior, and along the Yukon Eiver in Alaska. 

 Only one brood is raised in the season, and in the fall 

 they again work their way south, calling at many inter- 

 mediate stations. In southern Ontario they are seen dur- 

 ing October, but continue their southern route by easy 

 stages, till many of them reach the West Indies and 

 northern South America, where they soon again prepare 

 for the spring trip." They are recorded as "rather rare" 



