114 THE OSPREY. 



eagle at all, though a very fierce and powerful bird. 

 It is common in England, and perhaps most so in the 

 warmest parts of the country, less frequent in the north, 

 and rather a rare bird in Scotland. On the other hand, 

 the fishing eagle is abundant in Scotland, much more 

 so, and more generally diffused, than the golden eagle. 

 It is most abundant in the north ; less so in the south ; 

 rather a rare bird in the north of England, and hardly 

 known in the south. This is one of the principal causes 

 of the confounding of the two : they who have de- 

 scribed from English specimens, have described the 

 bald buzzard ; and they who have done so from Scotch 

 ones, have described the sea-eagle. The other mistake 

 is precisely of the same kind with that which made the 

 old and the young of the golden eagle two different 

 species. 



The beak of the osprey is of a bluish black, with 

 the cere at the base, gray, and toward the base is rather 

 straight, but not so much so as in the eagle, and the 

 point is remarkably hooked. The general colour of 

 the upper part is brown, with the feathers a little paler 

 at the margin. Those on the crown of the head are 

 edged with white, and the back of the head and nape 

 of the neck entirely white, on which account it got the 

 name of the bald buzzard, though no part of its head 

 be destitute of feathers. The lower part of the body 

 is spotted with brown in the young birds, but nearly 

 pure in the old. The whole plumage is close and 

 glossy, and resembles that of water- fowl, fully as much 

 as that of the eagle. The legs are short and very 

 strong ; the tafsi black, and defended by scales ; the 

 lower parts of the toes very much tuberculated, and 



