130 NATURAL HISTORY. 



render this no difficult matter. But they no sooner 

 arrive, than they wage war on the bald eagles, as against 

 a horde of robbers and banditti ; sometimes succeeding, 

 by force of numbers and perseverance, in driving them 

 from their haunts, but seldom or never attacking them 

 in single combat. 



'The first appearance of the fish-hawk in spring is 

 welcomed by the fishermen, as the happy signal of the 

 approach of those vast shoals of herrings, shad, &c. 

 that regularly arrive on our coasts, and enter our rivers 

 in such prodigious multitudes. Two of a trade, it is 

 said, seldom agree; the adage, however, will not hold 

 good in the present case, for such is the respect paid 

 to the fish-hawk, not only by this class of men, but, 

 generally, by the whole neighbourhood where it resides, 

 that a person who should attempt to shoot one of them 

 would stand a fair chance of being insulted. This 

 prepossession in favour of the fish-hawk is honourable 

 to their feelings. They associate with its first appear- 

 ance ideas of plenty, and all the gaiety of business; 

 they see it active and industrious like themselves, inoffen- 

 sive to the productions of their farms; building with 

 confidence, and without the least disposition to con- 

 cealment, in the middle of their fields, and along their 

 fences ; and returning, year after year, regularly to its 

 former abode. 



The nest of the fish-hawk is usually built on the top 

 of a dead or decaying tree, sometimes not more than 

 fifteen, often upwards of fifty, feet from the ground. 

 It has been remarked by the people of the sea-coasts, 

 that the most thriving tree will die in a few years after 



