Species VI. FALCO HALI^TUS. 



FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY. 



[Plate XXXVII. Fig. 1.] 



Carolina Osprey, Lath. Si/n. i., p. 46, No. 26, A. — Falco Piscator, Briss. i., p. 301, 

 No. 14; 362, No. 15. — Faucon pecheur de la Caroline, Buff, i., p. 142. — Fishing 

 Hawk, Catesb. Car. i., p. 2. — Falco Carolinensis , Gmel. !^yst. i., p. 263, No. 26.* 



This formidable, vigorous-winged, and well-known bird subsists 

 altogether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, creeks, and rivers ; 

 procuring his prey by his own active skill and industry ; and seeming 

 no farther dependent on the land than as a mere resting-place, or in the 

 usual season, a spot of deposit for his nest, eggs and young. The 

 figure here given is reduced to one-third the size of life, to correspond 

 with that of the Bald Eagle, his common attendant, and constant plun- 

 derer. 



The Fish-Hawk is migratory ; arriving oft the coasts of New York 

 and New Jersey about the twenty-first of March, and retiring to the 

 south about the twenty-second of September. Heavy equinoctial storms 

 may vary these periods of arrival and departure a few days ; but long 

 observation has ascertained, that they are kept with remarkable regu- 

 larity. On the arrival of these birds in the northern parts of the 

 United States, in March, they sometimes find the bays and ponds frozen, 

 and experience a difiiculty in procuring fish for many days. Yet there 

 is no instance on record of their attacking birds, or inferior land animals, 

 with intent to feed upon them ; though their great strength of flight, 

 as well as of feet and claws, would seem to render this no diflScult matter. 

 But they no sooner arrive, than they wage war on the Bald Eagles, as 

 against a horde of robbers and banditti ; sometimes succeeding, by force 

 of numbers and perseverance, in driving them from their haunts ; but 

 seldom or never attacking them in single combat. 



The first appearance of the Fish-Hawk in spring, is welcomed by 

 the fishermen, as a happy signal of the approach of those vast shoals 

 of herring, shad, &c. &c., that regularly arrive on our coasts, and enter 

 our rivers in such prodigious multitudes. Two of a trade, it is said, 

 seldom agree ; the adage, however, will not hold good in the present 

 case, for such is the respect paid the Fish-Hawk nat only by this class 



* The following synonyraes may be added: Le Balbuzardy Buff. PI. Enl. 414. 

 Aquila piscatrix, Vieillot, Ois. de I'Am. Sept^ v^ I., p. 29, pi. 4. 

 Vol. I.— 4 (49) 



