PANDION HALLETUS. 85 



osprey's being covered with short, close-set feathers. The 

 rounded surface of the claws alone (to be easily withdrawn), 

 instead of hollow or flat, like the rest of its congeners, is 

 sufficient to separate the osprey from its allied genera ; but it 

 possesses other distinctions in the form of the bill and legs 

 which warrant its being placed in a genus by itself. The outer 

 toe being reversible, and its claw longer than the rest, is a 

 striking care of Nature. Like all birds of prey the female is 

 the largest and most powerful, often weighing above 5 lbs., and 

 measures 26 inches from point of bill to end of tail, and 68 

 inches in extent of wings ; the male 24 and 64 inches. From 

 its large size it is sometimes called the fishing eagle. The 

 common osprey is the type of the genus, which contains some 

 other species, but not found in Britain. The wings are 

 two inches longer than the tail. The bill and claws are 

 black ; the legs and toes pale blue ; the iris yellow. The 

 head, which is small and flat, is white, finely marked with 

 oblong streaks of dark brown. The under parts of the body 

 are white, spotted with brown ; the upper parts dark brown. 

 The female differs little in plumage from the male. The close 

 texture of the under parts is in perfect harmony with its habits, 

 for, being often immersed in water, it is in perfect keeping with 

 Nature's design, nor is the want of the plumes on the thighs 

 (which would only be an encumbrance) less a proof of her wise 

 economy. There are few more striking adaptations of structure 

 for a given purpose than what is seen in the osprey, which may 

 have induced Shakespeare to liken Coriolanus to it, when the 

 Volscian General, Auficlius, was asked by his lieutenant if he 

 thought Coriolanus would retake Eome, replied — 



" I think he'll be to Rome 

 As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it 

 By sovereignty of Nature." 



Here is a bird of prey very much the same as the eagle, or hawk, 

 but destined to prey upon fish, and how wisely and well Nature 

 has fitted it to her design. It is not by diving or swimming 

 and seizing the fish with long, sharp-pointed bill, like the 

 gannet or diver ; but, true to its family, the eagle, hawk, and 

 falcon, to be clutched by its long and powerful talons as they 

 swim near the surface ; and, as fish only occasionally do so, the 

 osprey is furnished with extremely long and powerful wings — 

 with strong depressor muscles — by which it can not only fly 

 with ease to great distances in search of prey, without fatigue, 

 but also to fix itself in a particular spot — poised on air — with a 



