OSPKEY. 



PANDION HALI^ETUS, as the Fish Hawk or Osprey 

 is called in ornithological language, is found from the fur 

 region surrounding Hudson's Bay to Central America, and 

 from Labrador to Florida, excepting Boston Harbor, on the 

 Atlantic Coast, and almost from Alaska to the southern 

 extremity of the peninsula of Lower California on the 

 Pacific seaboard. Birds have been known to nest on the 

 rocky islands of California, and about Sitka, according to 

 BischofT, as well as along the small streams in the vicinity of 

 Nulato. From Long Island to Chesapeake they breed in 

 vast communities, which often number several hundred pairs, 

 but away from the sea-coast they are only occasionally met 

 with on the margins of rivers and lakes. Dr. Hayden found 

 several pairs nesting on the summit of high cottonwood trees 

 in the Wind River Mountains, and Mr. Allen observed the 

 birds particularly abundant about the lakes of the Upper St. 

 John's River in Florida, six nests being noticeable within a 

 single circle of vision. Salvin claims that they nest on both 

 coasts of Central America, but more especially about Balize, 

 although on the islands of Trinidad, St. Croix, Jamaica and 

 Cuba they are seen at all times except during the breeding- 

 season. 



Below Philadelphia, and in the south-eastern, counties of 

 Pennsylvania bordering on the Delaware, individuals have 

 been occasionally observed. Their arrival is about the 

 beginning of March, often when the streams which they 

 frequent are fettered with icy bonds, and their departure 

 occurs about the twenty-fifth of September, and frequently, 



