56 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



' 

 DESCRIPTION. 



Wings long; legs, toes, and claws very robust and strong. 



Adult. Head and entire under parts white ; stripe through the eye, top of the 

 head, and upper parts of the body, wings and tail deep umber-brown, tail having 

 about eight bands of blackish-brown ; breast with numerous cordate and circular 

 spots of pale yellowish-brown; bill and claws bluish-black; tarsi and toes green- 

 ish-yellow ; iris reddish-yellow. 



Young. Similar to the adult, but with the upper plumage edged and tipped 

 with pale-brownish, nearly white ; spots on the breast more numerous and darker 

 colored. 



Total length, female, about twenty-five inches ; wing, twenty-one inches ; tail, 

 ten and a half inches. Male, rather smaller. 



" Soon as the sun, great ruler of the year, 

 Bends to our northern climes his bright career, 

 And from the caves of Ocean calls from sleep 

 The finny shoals and myriads of the deep ; 

 When freezing tempests back to Greenland ride, 

 And day and night the equal hours divide, 

 True to the season, o'er our sea-beat shore, 

 The sailing Osprey high is seen to soar 

 With broad, unmoving wing ; and, circling slow, 

 Marks each loose straggler in the deep below, 

 Sweeps down like lightning, plunges with a roar, 

 And bears his struggling victim to the shore. 



The long-housed fisherman beholds with joy 

 The well-known signals of his rough employ ; 

 And, as he bears his nets and oars along, 

 Thus hails the welcome season with a song : 



THE FISHERMAN'S HYMN. 



The Osprey sails above the sound ; 



The geese are gone, the gulls are flying; 

 The herring-shoals swarm thick around ; 

 The nets are launched, the boats are plying. 

 Yo, ho, my hearts ! let's seek the deep, 



Raise high the song, and cheerly wish her, 

 Still, as the bending net we sweep, 

 ' God bless the Fish-hawk and the fisher ! ' 



She brings us fish : she brings us spring, 



Good times, fair weather, warmth, and plenty ; 



Fine store of shad, trout, herring, ling, 

 Sheep's-head and drum, and old-wives dainty. 



