224 Birds Every Child Should Know 



This is the hawk that is so glad to find a 

 deserted woodpecker's hole for its nest. How 

 many other birds gratefully accept those skil- 

 ful carpenters' vacant tenements! 



AMERICAN OSPREY 



Called also: Fish Hawk 



A pair of these beautiful big hawks, that had 

 nested year after year in the top of a tall pine 

 tree on the Manasquan River, New Jersey, were 

 g-reat pets in that region. An old fisherman 

 of Bamegat Bay told me that when he was 

 hauling in his seine one day, he saw the male 

 osprey strike the water with a splash, struggle 

 an instant with a great fish that had been fol- 

 lowing his net, and disappear below the waves, 

 never to rise again. The bird more than met his 

 match that time. The fish was far larger than 

 he expected, so powerful that it easily dragged 

 him under, once his talons were imbedded in 

 the fish's flesh. For the rest of the summer the 

 widowed osprey always stayed about when the 

 fisherman hauled his net on the beach, and bore 

 away to her nest the worthless fish he left in it 

 for her special benefit. But after rearing her 

 family — a prolonged process for all the hawks, 

 eagles, and owls — she never returned to the 



