324 Bird Studies. 



from aloft beneath the waves for its finny prey, as to warrant us in using 

 every effort against its destruction. Its care and solicitude in feeding and 

 educating its brood is a matter not soon to be forgotten even by the most 

 casual observer, and its confidence in man is a striking example of how 

 much can be accomplished where public sentiment becomes interested, and 

 warrants efforts of a like nature in behalf of other birds. 



The Osprey is about two feet long and has an expanse of wing of up- 

 wards of five feet. The upper parts are plain grayish brown. The top of 

 the head and back of the neck are much varied with piti-e white. The tail 

 is, like the upper parts grayish brown, is narrowly tipped with white and 

 crossed by six or eight dusky bands. The under parts are white, usually 

 immaculate in the adult male and generally heavily spotted in the female 

 with grayish brown darker than the back. Immature birds have the feathers 

 of the upper parts tipped or bordered with white or buffy, and are otherwise 

 much like the adults. 



The nest is an enormous structure of sticks, usually built in a tree 

 from twenty to seventy feet from the ground. The eggs are about two 

 inches and a half long- and an inch and four fifths in their smaller diameter. 

 They vary much in appearance from almost white and immaculate to deep 

 buff marked with umber and chocolate, the heavier colors sometimes obscuring 

 the buff or brown. 



Adult Duck Hawks are dark slate blue above, becoming appreciably 

 darker on the head. The larger feathers of the wings are barred with deep 



^ , „ , buff. The tail is obscurely barred with black and each 



Duck Hawk. ,..„/, , . . , 



Faico peregrinus anatum fcather has a whitc tip. The lower parts are white, with a 

 (Bonap.i. cream or buff tinge, barred and marked in a varying de- 



gree with dusky brown or black except on the breast. 



The sexes are alike in color, but vary much in size, the male being about 

 sixteen inches in length while the female is about three inches longer and 

 proportionately heavier. 



Immature birds are dusky brown above, each feather being more or less 

 bordered with buff or rusty brown. There is a blackish area below the eye. 

 The wings are similar to those of the adult bird. The lower parts are deep 

 cream or buff, generally streaked, but sometimes barred with dusky brown 

 or blackish. 



The birds nest on shelves on cliffs and in hollows in the higher branches 



