278 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



and is not confined to America. This fact, in combina- 

 tion with the other fact that the name "osprey" is more 

 universal than "fish-hawk," leads me to use the name 

 which is wider known, even if not so descriptive. 



Did you ever watch a kingfisher hover at fifty feet, 

 dive and strike its prey ; or an osprey do the same thing 

 to a larger fish at three times the distance ? If you have 

 done this, and have seen these birds take their fish in 

 from one to three feet of water, you may have wondered 

 at it in an indolent sort of way, and have gone on 

 fishing. 



Stop here and think! Put your hand a foot above 

 the water and try to grab a fish that is just below the 

 surface and you will fail. Then consider what the king- 

 fisher and the osprey do at the heights at which they 

 dive, and make a good living at it, and you will marvel 

 how the birds do it with repeated success, while you 

 can never catch even a little minnow in your hand. 



The osprey can sail in circles, like all of its class, but 

 it often flies in a direct line, with head bent down to 

 scan the waters below. When it sees a fish of the de- 

 sired size or kind, it hovers, as the kingfisher does, and 

 then like an arrow it dives, and rarely misses. Unlike 

 the kingfisher, it emerges from the water with the fish 

 in its powerful talons, and not in its bill, and then wings 

 its way into the woods to feast, or to feed its young. 



A PLANT. 



A water plant called "bladderwort" has a reputation 

 for capturing small fish and feeding on them, as the 

 pitcher plants feed on insects which venture into their 

 parlors after the sweet juices held there. I had read 



