248 THi: BIRDS OF MAINK 



Five eggs taken June 1, 1891, measure 1.38 x 1.10, 1.30 x 

 1.04, 1.39 X 1.10, 1.36 X 1.09, 1.35 x 1.10. 



Both sexes share the labor of incubation, and when the 

 female is on the nest the male is generally perched in a con- 

 spicuous place not far away. He is more or less attentive to 

 his mate, bringing her food at times when she is incubating. 



Their prey consists of small birds and mice, grasshoppers, 

 crickets and other insects, only very occasionally small chickens 

 and the young of poultry and game birds. I have often seen 

 one of these birds leave its perch and fly to the surface of a 

 field near by and there hover a foot or so from the ground, 

 sometimes crying "killy, killy, killy, killy" at other times 

 silent, generally dashing to the ground finally and arising with 

 a mouse or grasshopper in its talons. They have a call note 

 sounding like "ki-wee, ki-wee, ki-wee," repeated several times. 



Subfamily PANDIONIN^. Ospreys. 

 Genus PAN DION Savigny. 



364. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis (Gmel.). American 

 Osprey; Fish Hawk. 



Plumage of adults : more or less white toward rear of head and on neck ; 

 tail obscurely banded by dusky and generally white tipped ; otherwise above 

 fuscous ; below white. The breast of the female is generally spotted with 

 brownish. Immature plumage : similar, the feathers of back more or less 

 margined with whitish. Wing 17.50 to 20.75 ; tarsus 2.00 to 2.50. 



Geog. Dist. — North America ; breeding from Florida to Hudson's Bay and 

 Alaska ; wintering from South Carolina to northern South America. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; common, (Johnson). Aroostook; scat- 

 tered in summer about the lakes and ponds, (Knight). Cumberland; com- 

 mon summer resident, (Mead). Franklin; rare summer resident, (Swain). 

 Hancock; common summer resident along the coast, local and rare inland, 

 (Knight). Kennebec; rare, (Royal). Knox; summer, (Rackliff). Oxford; 

 breeds rarely, (Nash). Penobscot ; local summer resident about the ponds 

 and lakes from mid April to September, (Knight). Piscataquis ; not un- 

 common, breeds, (Homer). Sagadahoc ; common summer resident, (Spinney). 

 Somerset; common, probably summer resident, (Morrell) ; a few breed about 

 the northern lakes, (Knight). Waldo; common summer resident, (Knight). 

 Washington; abundant summer resident, (Boardman). York; (Adams). 



