RARER BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 569 



OSPREF. FISH HAWK. Pandion hdliaetus Sav.* (P. 

 Carolinensis Bonap.) It seems at first a little strange that 

 this noble bird should not be found breeding anywhere on 

 the Massachusetts coast, but when we recall the peculiar 

 situations usually chosen by it for its eyrie we cease to be 

 surprised. At present there are here no heavy forests near 

 the sea, with lofty dead trees spreading their broad whitened 

 arms to receive its bulky and conspicuous nest. All who are 

 acquainted with this bird's breeding habits must have been 

 struck with its marked predilection for such nesting sites. 

 While it breeds abundantly on the New Jersey coast, on 

 portions of Long Island, on the coast of Maine and about 

 the large lakes in the interior, it is now only seen in this 

 state, so far as I can learn, during its migrations. It un- 

 doubtedly nested here before the thorough disforesting of 

 the seacoast ; a former nesting site near Ipswich being still 

 remembered by some of the older residents there. The 

 present puny second forest-growth affords it no suitable 

 breeding places, and this is no doubt the reason of its being 

 now but a transient visitor here. 



HAWK OWL. Surnia-ulula Bon. Mr. A. L. Babcock of 

 Sherborn, has a specimen which he took a few years since 

 at Natick. Dr. Brewer informs me he once obtained it 

 near Roxbury. Mr. Scott writes that five specimens were 

 taken at Westfield, near the village, in the autumn of 1867. 

 In my Catalogue this species, though mentioned incidentally 

 as probably occurring occasionally along the Green Mountain 

 ranges in the western part of the state, was not reckoned as 

 a Massachusetts bird. Dr. Emmons says it has been ob- 

 served in that section in autumn, f and from what I now 

 know of its distribution I doubt not it is a somewhat regular 

 winter visitor there. 



*In the Museum of Comparative Zoology are numerous specimens of this bird, from 

 Brazil, Florida, and New England, the North, and from Europe. They differ a good 

 deal, but some of those that differ most are from the same locality. I cannot see 

 wherein the European differ essentially from the American. Some of these arc more 

 like the American than some of the American arc like each other. 



t Hitchcock's Geological Report for 1835. 

 AMKK. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 72 



