OSPREY. 31 



has been admirably described by ornithologists in America, 

 where the bird is sufficiently numerous to afford excellent 

 opportunities of observing its actions. On one island near 

 the eastern extremity of Long Island, New York, three 

 hundred nests were counted. The old birds were rearing 

 their young close together, living as peaceably as so many 

 Rooks, and were equally harmless towards other birds. 

 " When looking out for its prey," says Sir John Richardson, 

 "it sails with great ease and elegance, in undulating and 

 curved lines, at a considerable altitude above the water, from 

 whence it precipitates itself upon its quarry and bears it off 

 in its claws ; or it not unfrequently, on the fish moving to 

 too great a depth, stops suddenly in its descent, and hovers 

 for a few seconds in the air, like a Kite or a Kestrel, sus- 

 pending itself in the same spot by a quick flapping of its 

 wings ; it then makes a second and, in general, unerring dart 

 upon its prey, or regains the former altitude by an elegant 

 spiral flight. It seizes the fish with its claws, sometimes 

 scarcely appearing to dip its feet in the water, and at other 

 times plunging entirely under the surface with force suffi- 

 cient to throw up a considerable spray. It emerges again, 

 however, so speedily, as to render it evident that it does not 

 attack fish swimming at any great depth." Though this last 

 remark is no doubt true, it may be observed that an instance 

 came to Mr. Wolley's knowledge of an Osprey being caught 

 in a fishing-net and drowned. Mr. Lloyd has recorded the 

 same fate happening to one which had struck so large a fish 

 that the bird was pulled under water ; and Mr. Knox men- 

 tions a case in which the bird, having landed its prey, was 

 unable to extricate its talons therefrom, and so fell a victim 

 to the crook of a shepherd who had witnessed the capture. 



The versatility of the outer toe of the Osprey, the strength, 

 curvature, and sharpness of its claws, and the roughness of 

 the soles of its feet, are peculiarities of structure adapted to 

 the better securing its slippery prey ; and the shortness of 

 its thigh-feathers, unusual in the Falcon tribe, is also evi- 

 dently connected with its fishing habits. A bird in the 

 Gardens of the Zoological - Society of London, when a fish 



