88 THE OSPREY", OR FISHING HAWK. 



in America, where the nests are generally on trees. Wilson 

 climbed up to several of them, on the sea coast, constructed with 

 large sticks from J inch to 1 J inches thick and 2 or 3 feet long, 

 intermixed with cornstalks, sea-weed, pieces of wet turf in large 

 quantities, and lined with dry sea-grass — the whole forming a 

 mass seen half-a-mile off, and large enough (he says) " to fill a 

 cart and be a good load for a horse, and so well put together as 

 to adhere in large pieces after being blown down by the 

 wind." Audubon, another American ornithologist, also says the 

 nest is very large, fully 4 feet across, and of such a mass of 

 materials as to be as deep as it is in diameter, generally on a 

 large dead or decaying tree, near water, often upwards of 50 

 feet high, sometimes only 7 or 8 feet from the ground. Twice 

 he saw it on the ground, and once on the roof of a low house ; 

 so, as already said, there is no hard and fast rule with Nature. 

 Birds, like other creatures, adapt themselves to circumstances. 

 "Wilson says " no less than 300 nests have been counted at one 

 time on an island near New York, the birds living as peaceably 

 together as so many rooks." The male chiefly supplies the 

 female with fish during incubation. The young remain in the 

 nest till able to fish for themselves, helped by the old birds. 

 They are singularly gentle and affectionate, seldom molesting 

 other species — rearing their young and pursuit of their finny 

 prey being their sole care, and are more social than the rest of 

 the family. In America it is greatly molested by the white- 

 headed sea eagle, and often forced to relinquish its prey, as it 

 would be by the white-tailed eagle with us were both as 

 numerous, but both being rare in Britain they seldom come in 

 contact. Wilson says — On leaving the nest the male flies 

 direct to the sea, then sails around in easy curving wheels, 

 sometimes turning as on a pivot — apparently without the least 

 exertion — rarely moving its wings, his legs extended straight 

 behind ; his remarkable length and curvature of wing dis- 

 tinguish him from all other hawks. The height at which he 

 elegantly glides varies from 100 to 200 feet — sometimes much 

 higher — all the while, like the golden eagle above land, calmly 

 scanning the sea below. Suddenly he checks his course, as if 

 struck by some object, which he surveys for a few moments 

 with such steadiness that he seems fixed in air — flapping his 

 w r ings. This object he abandons, or rather the fish has dis- 

 appeared, and he again sails around as before. His attention is 

 again arrested, and he descends with great rapidity ; but before 

 he reaches the surface he shoots off on another course, as if 



