THE OSPREY. 21 
In spite of my observations as to the passive nature of 
Ospreys, it is common belief among farmers that they will 
drive away other hawks. They are, therefore, well pro- 
tected and sometimes encouraged to nest near houses, by 
the erection of a horizontal platform, or cart-wheel on a 
tall pole. Ihave known ofa nest on the gable of an occupied 
farm-house in New Jersey, quite suggesting the home of 
the Stork in Old-world countries. It is most pleasing to 
find with what friendliness, the country over, Ospreys are 
regarded. ‘The fishermen of Gardiner’s Island, in spite 
of the large daily toll of fish which the birds take, bear not 
the slightest malice toward them. “They are a wonderful 
bird,” declared Mr. Tuthill, the hospitable fisherman in 
whose shanty we lodged, “‘ and we like them. The fish they 
take they are welcome to. It is sport to see them plunge ; 
what an eye they must have! Law or no law, we fishermen 
would not want to hurt them, and it was always Mr. 
Gardiner’s wish that they be left alone. Them and the 
Sea-Gulls we want to keep. The bird that we have no use 
for is the Cormorant. ‘They kill lots of fish for us and do 
not eat them, and drive them out of our nets.” 
The fishermen set their nets vertically in the water 
and running from the shore at right angles. At the outer 
end is an enclosure in which the fish, nosing their way 
along the net to find a passage, become impounded. The 
Ospreys have come to learn that this is easy fishing-ground, 
and they may be seen standing in considerable numbers 
on the stakes which support the nets (vide Plate 3a). 
When fishing at the nets, the Ospreys seldom take the 
trouble to hover, but just drop from a stake, swoop over 
the water, and snatch a fish in their talons. In open water 
I have also occasionally seen them seize in this way some 
fish that happened to be a particularly “easy mark”’ (as, for 
instance, in the case of the bogus Goldfish). In picking 
up dead fish, too, there is plainly no necessity for poising, 
and the bird just dips her feet into the water as she flies. 
For it must be admitted that the Osprey does sometimes 
