THE FISH-HAWK. 59 



feet, his long wings, as they beat the air in quick, sharp 

 strokes, give the bird the appearance of being much larger 

 than he really is. When he plunges into the water, he 

 invariably seizes the fish, his prey, in his talons, and is 

 sometimes immersed to the depth of a foot or eighteen 

 inches in his efforts to capture it. He is of a peaceable 

 disposition, and never molests any of his feathered neigh- 

 bors. If the nest is plundered, the parent attacks the in- 

 truder, and often inflicts ugly wounds in its defence. 



Mr. Alien, in his notes on the " Rarer Birds of Massa- 

 chusetts," remarks while the osprey " breeds abundantly 

 on the New Jersey coast, on portions of Long Island, on 

 the coast of Maine and about the large lakes in the interior, 

 it is now, only seen in this state, (Massachusetts,) so far as 

 I can learn, during its migrations." 



During the past winter, I have had frequent conversa- 

 tions with hunters and others, interested in our birds, who 

 are residents of Plymouth and Barnstable counties, and 

 their testimony is that in the large tracts of woodland in 

 those counties, such as the Plymouth and Sandwich woods, 

 the osprey nests, not in communities, but so frequently that 

 the birds and nests are often found. 



The eggs are usually laid before the 10th of May : they 

 are generally three in number. They vary considerably, 

 both in shape, size, and markings. In a majority of speci- 

 mens in my collection, the ground-color is a rich reddish- 

 cream, and covered with numerous blotches of different 

 shades of brown. In a number of specimens, these blotches 

 are confluent, and the primary color is nearly hidden. Their 

 form varies from nearly spherical to ovoidal, and the dimen- 

 sions from 2.28 to 2.44 inches in length, and from 1.65 to 

 1.83 in breadth. 



