348 OSPRBYS' CAPACITY FOR CATCHING PREY, 



before it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty 

 to the woods. 



The osprey on leaving its nest, usually flies direct until it 

 reaches the sea, then sails round in easy curving lines, turn- 

 ing sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently without 

 the least exertion, rarely moving its wings. Suddenly it 

 checks its course as if struck by a particular object, which 

 it seems to survey for a few moments with such steadiness 

 that it appears fixed in the air, flapping its wings. This ob- 

 ject, however, it abandons, and is again seen sailing round 

 as before. Now its attention is again arrested, and it 

 descends with great rapidity, but before it reaches the sur- 

 face shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second 

 victim had escaped. It now sails at a short distance above 

 the surface, and by a zig-zag descent, and without seeming 

 to dip its feet in the water, seizes a fish, which, after carry- 

 ing a short distance, it drops and probably yields up to the 

 bald eagle, and again ascends by easy spiral circles to the 

 higher regions, where it glides about with all the ease and 

 majesty of its species. From hence it descends like a per- 

 pendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a low rushing 

 sound, and with the certainty of a rifle. In a few moments 

 it emerges, bearing in its claws the struggling prey, which 

 is always carried head-foremost, and having risen a few feet 

 above the surface, shakes itself as a water-spaniel would do, 

 and then seeks land. If the wind blows hard, and its nest 

 be in a quarter from which it comes, it is amusing to see 

 with what judgment the osprey beats up to windward ; not 

 in a direct line, but like an experienced navigator, making 

 several successive tacks to accomplish its purpose. 



The ospreys watch and pursue fish with as much avidity 

 as the true eagles hunt their game on land ; and Nature, as 

 we have remarked, has provided them with the means for so 

 doing. Fish are slippery, and therefore its claws are long 



