134 NATURAL HISTORY. 



judgment and exertion he beats to windward, not in a 

 direct line, that is, in the wind's eye, but making several 

 successive tacks to gain his purpose. This will appear 

 the more striking, when we consider the size of the fish 

 which he sometimes bears along. A shad was taken from 

 a fish-hawk near Great Egg Harbour, on which he had 

 begun to regale himself, and had already eaten a consider- 

 able portion of it; the remainder weighed six pounds. 

 Another fish-hawk was passing Mr Beasley's, at the same 

 place, with, a large flounder in his grasp, which struggled 

 and shook him so, that he dropt it on the shore. The 

 flounder was picked up, and served the whole family for 

 dinner. It is singular that the hawk never descends to 

 pick up a fish which he happens to drop, either on the 

 land or in the water. There is a kind of abstemious 

 dignity in this habit of the hawk, superior to the gluttonous 

 voracity displayed by most other birds of prey, and 

 particularly by the bald eagle, whose piratical robberies 

 committed on the present species have been already fully 

 detailed in treating of his history.* The hawk, however, 

 in his fishing pursuits, sometimes mistakes his mark, 

 or overrates his strength, by striking fish too large and 

 powerful for him to manage, by whom he is suddenly 

 dragged under; and though he sometimes succeeds 

 in extricating himself, after being taken three or four 

 times down, yet oftener both parties perish. The 

 bodies of sturgeon and several other large fish, with that 

 of a fish-hawk fast grappled in them, have at different 



* Wilson gives a most graphic and animated account of the habit of the bald 

 eagle of watching till the fish-hawk has caught a fish, and then pursuing him till 

 the latter, ' with a sudden scream, probably of despair and honest execration,' is 

 compelled to drop his prey, which the eagle instantly seizes and carries off. 



