54. BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus PANDION. 
The genus Pandion was established by Savigny (who separated it from 
the genus Falco of Linneeus) in 1810, in his ‘Systeme des Oiseaux de 
VEgypte et de la Syrie, p.9. The only species known to him was P. 
haliaetus, which must therefore be the type. 
There is only one species of Osprey in the world; and this may be said 
to be almost cosmopolitan. The characters which distinguish it from all 
other allied birds of prey are the combination of the finely reticulated (not 
broadly scaled) tarsus, and the long first primary (much longer than the 
secondaries), with the absence of a forked tail and a notched bill. Its food 
is almost exclusively fish. 
