54 ' .BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus PANDION. 



The genus Pandion was established by Savigny (who separated it from 

 the genus Falco of Linnseus) in 1810, in his ' Systeme des Oiseaux de 

 TEgypte et de la Syrie/ p. 9. The only species known to him was P. 

 haliaetus, which must therefore be the type. 



There is only one species of Osprey in the world ; and this may be said 

 to be almost cosmopolitan. The characters which distinguish it from all 

 other allied birds of prey are the combination of the finely reticulated (not 

 broadly scaled) tarsus, and the long first primary (much longer than the 

 secondaries), with the absence of a forked tail and a notched bill. Its food 

 is almost exclusively fish. 



