2I 4 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



act when he shoots one of them. Were it not for this ancient prejudice, this 

 Hawk would doubtless become more common in the pastures and hillsides near 

 the sea. 



i^6 [364] Pandion haliaetus carolinensis (Gmel.). 

 American Osprey ; Fish Hawk. 



Common transient visitor ; April 8 to May 21 ; (July 31) ; August 26 to 

 October 18. 



Many years ago, this Hawk bred at Ipswich and Georgetown, but it is now 

 seen in Essex County during the spring and autumn migrations only. Dr. J. A. 

 Allen, 1 in his Rarer Birds of Massachusetts, speaks of " a former nesting site 

 near Ipswich being still remembered by some of the older residents there." 



Dr. J. C. Phillips has noticed, for five years or more, at Wenham Lake, 

 that the autumnal flight of Ospreys is large, sometimes as many as a hundred 

 birds being seen going south and that the heaviest flight generally precedes a 

 heavy flight of Ducks, so that preparations for good shooting are always made 

 when a flight of Ospreys is seen. 



In 1903, beginning on September 15th, careful notes were taken of the 

 number of Ospreys seen flying south from his shooting stand on Wenham Lake. 

 The record is as follows : September 22d, two seen ; September 23d, one seen ; 

 September 24th, five seen; September 25th, "a few" seen; September 28th, 

 nine seen (five in one bunch) ; September 29th, twenty-seven seen. On this day 

 forty-nine Ducks were seen and five were shot. On the next day, September 

 30th, only two Ospreys were seen, but there was a very heavy flight of Black 

 Ducks and seventeen were shot. At dark, there was a " big flight " of Night 

 Herons. There is no record of Ospreys again until October 14th, when one 

 belated bird was seen. This makes a total of some fifty Ospreys. The weather 

 was warm and with a little southerly wind on September 2 2d to 24th, while on 

 the 28th and 29th, when so many Ospreys were flying, it was cold and clear 

 with a northwest wind. On the 30th, when there was a large flight of Black 

 Ducks, it was calm and warm again. 



The specimens of Ospreys taken in the autumn are all laden with fat, and 

 this fat has a strong fishy smell. 



1 J. A. Allen : Amer. Nat., vol. 3, p. 569, 1870. 



