CHAPTER XXI. 



NEW JERSEY COAST AND THE OSPREY. 



SEVERAL summer vacations spent around Sandy Hook 

 and Barnegat Bay, on the New Jersey coast, left a vivid 

 impression on my mind of that grand bird, the Osprey, or 

 Fish Hawk (Pandion haliaetus}. About 24.00 long and 

 68.00 in extent, in structure and bearing this species is 

 much more an Eagle than a Hawk. Rich dark-brown above 

 and white beneath, the tail is barred with dusky, the sides 

 of the head are white, with a dark band through the eye, 

 thus marking the bird quite noticeably even in the distance. 

 There is a band of light brown spots across the breast. 

 The most differentiating feature, however, of the Osprey is. 

 the short, close feathers of the legs, thus leaving these 

 large, blue, round-scaled members entirely without the long 

 flowing tufts so characteristic of the legs of Hawks and 

 Eagles generally. The long, acuminate, erectile feathers of 

 the crown and the back of the neck are especially graceful. 

 The younger specimens have the dark feathers above tipped 

 or edged with whitish. Of world-wide distribution in its 

 several varieties, our American representative may be found 

 more or less throughout the continent, but especially coast- 

 wise. Wintering in the south, its vernal and autumnal mi- 

 grations along the middle districts of the Atlantic seem 

 singularly coincident with the equinoxes. About the 21st 

 of March, when some of the largest and most important 

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