MARCH. 57 



have nature without man's interference now, and the 

 gulls, the divers, and fish-hawks are royal company. 



Neither the gull nor the fish-hawk seems so active and 

 quick- winged when here, far off from the ocean, as when 

 at or near the sea. The latter does not come until late in 

 the month, and only then if the water is high, herring 

 abundant, and the meadows with at least a remnant of a 

 freshet. It is not until April that they are a fixed feature 

 of the landscape. Like many other of our large birds, 

 fish-hawks are not so abundant now as even half a century 

 ago, although the struggle for existence is something less 

 severe than when their arch-enemy, the bald eagle, was 

 comparatively common. They here have a broad field to 

 all appearances quite to themselves, and why it is so 

 sparsely occupied is determined not readily, if at all. It 

 is hard to believe that the supply of fish has appreciably 

 decreased ; and certainly there is no lack of suitable and 

 safe nesting sites. As in all cases of like perplexity, I 

 have gone to the old folks, except such as vegetate in 

 towns, and sought from them an explanation. I have 

 never been turned away unanswered; but, alas! though 

 it be contemptible to admit it, I must say I never returned 

 home enlightened. Vague theory reigns rampant when 

 new subjects are broached to the unobservant. 



I have said that fish-hawks were a fixed feature of the 

 landscape here. I limit the plural to a single pair, and 

 perhaps because there are but two in the neighborhood, 

 it is that they differ in many ways from their kind that 

 throng the sea-coast. Often have I watched a single one, 

 as it sailed over the weedy fields, an hour at a time, quar- 

 tering the ground as closely as any mousing harrier. Is 

 the fish-hawk, at such a time, in search of inland prey ? 

 The appearances are certainly against them, and I have 

 known farmers to go so far as to insist that no discrimi- 

 nation should be made between them and the true buzzards 



