GARDINER'S ISLAND 59 



fish still grasped in his left foot, or perched on the ground a 

 hundred yards away. At 12.50, the female dropped all cau- 

 tion, and the previously often repeated alarm note was 

 replaced by a wholly different call, a high, rapidly uttered 

 tweet-tweet-tweet, which proved to be a food-call to the 

 male. At one o 'clock, in response to it he came to the nest, 

 but the proximity of the blind frightened him and he took 

 wing again almost as he alighted, and returned to his perch 

 on the beach. Again the female uttered her food-call and 

 the young were now permitted to move about the nest. 

 Finally the male came again but, as before, his fears over- 

 came him and he departed quickly, taking the fish with him. 

 Three times this performance was repeated ; on the fourth, 

 the female, losing patience or prompted by hunger, at- 

 tempted to take the fish from his foot with her bill, when, as 

 the male arose, the fish was pulled from his grasp and drop- 

 ped over the edge of the nest to the sand at its base. This 

 was a catastrophe with which neither bird was prepared to 

 cope. The male made no move to get another fish but went 

 back to his perch in the meadow. The female repeated her 

 food-call more loudly and the young apparently asked for 

 food, uttering a twittering peep ; but experience had not fit- 

 ted her to deal with this chain of events and the fish at the 

 foot of the nest was left where it fell. 



Owing to the stable conditions of their habitat, as well as 

 to the regularity of their habits, the Fish Hawks of Gardi- 

 ner's Island offer an exceptionally valuable subject for con- 

 tinuous observation. The present contribution merely 

 suggests the opportunities which await the ornithologist 

 who, beginning by a survey of the island in order to plot on 

 a map the exact location of each nest, will devote several 

 weeks during the nesting, for a period of years, to an inti- 

 mate study of certain nests and a general supervision of 

 them all. 



My visits to Gardiner's Island have been made chiefly 

 during the summer (May 29- June 2, 1900 ; July 2-7, 1901 ; 



