390 LAND-BIRDS. 



wild fowl, especially if wounded, and have been known, on 

 finding a crippled Brant, to plant themselves upon it, and, 

 spreading their wings, to sail to shore. 



d. The Bald Eagles are usually silent. A young one, 

 which I observed in confinement, snored when sleeping, and, 

 when awake, frequently hissed or uttered extraordinary sounds, 

 suggestive of the pig-sty, though not unlike disagreeable laugh- 

 ter. These are the chief items of interest which I can add to 

 Wilson's account. 



IX. PANDION. 



A. HALIAETUS CAROLiNENSis. Fish HawJc. American 

 Osprey. In New England, a summer resident, but very rare 

 in Massachusetts.* 



a. About two feet long. Under parts, and the head, white. 

 Eye-stripe, and the upper parts, dark. Tail, banded. Breast, 

 spotted or streaked with brown. Feet, large and stout, pre- 

 senting, as does the plumage, certain peculiarities. 



b. The nest is extremely large, being usually repaired and 

 added to from year to year. It is composed of sticks, of which 

 there is often a cart-load, and is lined with sea-weed, or other 

 coarse materials. It is built in a tree, near some body of 

 water, sometimes several being near together. It is placed at 

 various heights above the ground, but often near the top, even 

 of a dead tree. In New England, two, three, or four eggs 

 are laid about the first of May, or sometimes later. They av- 

 erage 2.40 X 1.70 of an inch, and are usually creamy, buff, or 

 reddish, thickly spotted and blotched with rich brown of sev- 

 eral shades, some of which are dark and others reddish. Oc- 

 casionally the eggs are white, with a few large markings of 

 umber brown. 



c. The Fish Hawks, like their tormentors the " Bald " 

 Eagles, are summer residents in Florida, arctic countries, and 

 the lands between, but, unlike them, are very migratory, and 



* Common throughout most of New sachusetts and Rhode Island ; spar- 

 England during the migrations, breed- ingly and locally in the interior of 

 ing very numerously and generally Maine, usually on the shores of the 

 along the coast of Maine, and about larger lakes and rivers. W. B. 

 the head of Narragansett Bay in Mas- 



