26 THE HOME-LIFE OF 
half-downy, half-feathered stage, and in subsequent plumages, 
it is remarkable how exactly the young Ospreys match the 
bed of the nest (Plate 64). ‘They have a way of lying prone 
in the presence of intruders (Plate 7), and it is often almost 
an impossibility to determine from a short distance whether 
a nest 1s empty or contains young. Even when looking 
directly into a nest, one’s attention will perhaps be 
attracted by two youngsters, and a third that may be lying 
toward one side will be completely overlooked. So still 
do the young birds lie, that were it not for their breathing 
one could believe them dead. Usually they rest their 
heads on one side, or hang them over the edge of the nest 
in a peculiarly death-like attitude. They will allow flies 
to walk directly over their eyes, without exhibiting the 
slightest movement. If, however, the observer stands 
motionless for awhile, the little fellows soon begin to stir. 
Their first act is usually to hold up their heads and open 
their mouths, so that they can breathe more readily, for 
in the neighbourhood of New York at least, the month 
of July, when the young Ospreys are in the nest, is apt to 
be very hot. Soon the youngsters will have their tongues 
out and be panting like dogs, with a drop of moisture on 
the tip of their lower mandible or of their tongue. In 
all of the photographs herewith, when a young bird has its 
mouth open, it is due to the heat and not to any utterance, 
for young Ospreys are, in the main, very silent individuals. 
Not until they are well feathered have I ever heard them 
emit anything approaching Osprey-like sounds; I have 
then observed them imitate the cry of their parent 
overhead, in a charmingly babyish and amusing manner. 
At this latter age they add to the death-feigning instinct 
of the earlier period, a most interesting habit, which we 
may term “ looking fierce.” If, as they lie flat in the nest, 
they are approached too closely or touched, the first sign 
of life is a bristling of the feathers on the back (Plate 7). 
If the intrusion be continued they rise suddenly in the nest, 
and turn toward one with ruffled feathers and glaring eyes, 
