Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



surface ; then, closing its great wings, it darts like a streak of 

 feathered lightning, and with unerring aim strikes the water with 

 a loud splash. Perhaps it will disappear below for a second 

 before it rises, scattering spray about it in its struggles to clear the 

 surface, and fly upward with its prey grasped in its powerful 

 talons. The fish is never carried tail end foremost; if caught so, 

 the hawk has been seen turning it about in mid air. Small fry 

 are usually eaten a-wing; larger game are borne off to a perch, to 

 be devoured at leisure; and it is said that when an osprey strikes 

 its talons through the flesh of a fish too heavy to be lifted from 

 the water, the prey turns captor and drowns his tormentor, 

 whose claws reaching his vitals soon end his life, when bird and 

 fish, locked in a death grasp, are washed ashore. The osprey 

 rarely touches fish of value for the table; catfish, suckers, and 

 such prey as no one grudges it, form its staple food. It also eats 

 with relish dead fish lying on the beach. 



The bald eagle, perched at a high point of vantage, takes 

 instant note of the successful fisher, and with a majestic swoop 

 arrives before the osprey has a chance to devour its prey. Now 

 a desperate chase begins if the intimidated bird has not already 

 relaxed its grasp of the prize; and pursuing the hawk higher and 

 higher, the eagle relentlessly torments it until it is glad to drop 

 the fish for the pirate to seize and bear away, leaving it temporary 

 peace. Again the industrious osprey secures a glistening, wrig- 

 gling victim; again the eagle pursues his unwilling purveyor. 

 After unmerciful persecution, a number of fish hawks will band 

 together and drive away the robber. 



Birds of this order show strong affection for their life-long 

 mates and the young, and for an old nest that is often a true 

 home at all seasons, and to which they return year after year if 

 unmolested, simply repairing damages inflicted by winter storms. 

 The osprey also shows a marked preference for a certain perch to 

 which it carries its prey, and there it will sit sometimes for hours 

 at a time. The ground below is heavily strewn with bones, 

 scales, and other indigestible parts offish. An immense accumu- 

 lation of sticks, rushes, weed stalks, shredded bark, salt hay, 

 odds and ends gathered among the rubbish of seaside cottages, 

 feathers, and mud make old nests, with their annual additions, 

 bulky, conspicuous affairs in the tree tops. New nests are often 

 rather small, considering the size of the bird. Both mates incu- 



333 



