76 FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY. 



rienced coaster wisely prepares for the expected storm, and is 

 rarely mistaken. 



There is one singular trait in the character of this bird, which 

 will be mentioned in treating of the Purple Grakle, and which 

 I have had many opportunities of witnessing. The Grakles, 

 or Crow Blackbirds, are permitted by the Fish-Hawk to build 

 their nests among the interstices of the sticks of which his own 

 is constructed. Several pair of Grakles taking up their abode 

 there, like humble vassals around the castle of their chief, lay- 

 ing, hatching their young, and living together in mutual har- 

 mony. I have found no less than four of these nests clustered 

 around the sides of the former, and a fifth fixed on the nearest 

 branch of the adjoining tree; as if the proprietor of this last, 

 unable to find an unoccupied corner on the premises, had been 

 anxious to share as much as possible the company and protec- 

 tion of this generous bird. 



The Fish-Hawk is twenty-two inches in length, and five feet 

 three inches in extent; the bill is deep black, the upper as well 

 as lower cere, (for the base of the lower mandible has a loose 

 moveable skin) and also the sides of the mouth, from the nos- 

 trils backwards, are light blue; crown and hind-head pure white, 

 front streaked with brown; through the eye a bar of dark black- 

 ish brown passes to the neck behind, which, as well as the whole 

 upper parts, is deep brown, the edges of the feathers lighter; 

 shafts of the wing quills brownish white; tail slightly rounded, 

 of rather a paler brown than the body, crossed with eight bars 

 of very dark brown; the wings when shut extend about an inch 

 beyond the tail, and are nearly black towards the tips; the inner 

 vanes of both quill and tail feathers are whitish, barred with 

 brown ; whole lower parts pure white, except the thighs, which 

 are covered with short plumage, and streaked down the fore 

 part with pale brown ; the legs and feet are a very pale light 

 blue, prodigiously strong and disproportionably large, they are 

 covered with flat scales of remarkable strength and thickness, 

 resembling when dry the teeth of a large rasp, particularly on 

 the soles, intended no doubt to enable the bird to seize with 



