OSPBLY 25 



have occurred on the Tweed, are recorded as having appeared 

 there in the autumn. 



The Osprey is in some degree, or rather in some situations, 

 a gregarious bird. As many as three hundred pairs have 

 been known to build together in America, which, as before 

 remarked, seems to be by far its most abundant habitat. It 

 is a very frequent circumstance for several pairs thus to con- 

 gregate; the similarity of their pursuit by no means seeming 

 to interfere with that harmony which should ever prevail 

 among members of the same family. They sometimes unite 

 in a general attack on their common enemy, the White-headed 

 Eagle, and, union being strength, succeed in driving him from 

 their fishing- grounds, of which they then maintain the peaceable 

 possession. 



It would appear from the mention of the Osprey, by Izaak 

 Walton, under the name of Bald Buzzard, that it was formerly 

 used in falcomy. 



The flight of the Osprey, though generally slow and heavy 

 like that of the Buzzard, and performed with a scarcely per- 

 ceptible motion of the wings, is strikingly easy and graceful. 

 It rises spirally at pleasure to a great height, darts down 

 perhaps at times, and then again sails steadily on. When 

 looking out for prey, on perceiving a fish which it can strike, 

 it hovers in the air for a few moments, like the Kestrel, with 

 a continual motion of its wings arid tail. Its stoop, which 

 follows, though sometimes suspended midway, most likely 

 from perceiving that the fish had escaped, or to 'make assur- 

 ance doubly sure,' is astonishingly rapid. The similar action 

 of the Sea Swallow may serve to give some faint idea of it. 



If the fish it has pounced on be at some distance below 

 the surface, the Osprey is completely submerged for an instant, 

 and a circle of foam marks the spot where it has descended: 

 on rising again with its capture, it first, after mounting a few 

 yards in the air, shakes its plumage, which, though formed by 

 nature extremely compact for the purpose of resisting the wet 

 as much as possible, must imbibe some degree of moisture, 

 which it thus dislodges. It then immediately flies off to its 

 nest, if it be the breeding- season, or to some tree if it is not, 

 and in that situation makes its meal. When this is ended, 

 it usually, though not always, again takes wing and soars 

 away to a great height, or else prowls anew over the waters 

 unlike the other Hawks, which, for the most part, remain 

 in an apathetic state, the result apparently of satisfied hunger: 



