CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 1. RAPTORES. 



27 



The OsPREY, Bald Buzzard, or Fishing Eagle — Balbusard Offraye of Le Maout; Falco 



haliaetus of Linnseiis — P. haliaetus, is a large 

 and powerful bird ; the female, being a quar- 

 ter larger than the male, measures twenty- 

 five inches and weighs five pounds. The plu- 

 maore is white below, with a few brown streaks 

 and speckles on the throat; the whole of the 

 upper part is brown ; the feathers on the 

 thighs are close, and the legs short, stout, and 

 grayish. In this part of its organization we 

 see a beautiful instance of adaptation to its liab- 

 its. The close thigh-feathers resist the action 

 of the water, in which it plunges for its prey, 

 while tho talon of the outer toe is much larger 

 than the inner one, and capable of being turned 

 backward ; the under surfaces of all the toes are 

 also very rough, and covered with protuberances, 

 which enable it to secure its slippery prize. 



This bird usually flies at a considerable 

 hci^'ht, and lives chiefly on fishes, which it seizes 

 along the sea-shore or in ponds and lakes, by 

 descending upon them and bearing them off" in 

 its talons. It however occasionally seizes upon 

 sea-fowl. Its strength is so great that it will lift 

 from the water and carry away a fish of its own 

 weight. Its greediness is said sometimes to ex- 

 ceed its discretion, for it occasionally buries its 

 talons in a fish too heavy to be borne away, and 

 being unable or unwilling to extricate them, is 

 carried beneath the water and drowned. This 

 species is migratory, and is generally distributed 

 throughout Europe, and in some places is abund- 

 ant ; it is also found in parts of Africa and Asia. 

 Other foreign species of this genus are the 

 White-headed Osprey, P. leucocephalus ; the Marine Eagle, P. ichthyaetus ; and the Small 

 Marine Eagle, P. humilis. 



The American Osprey, popularly known among us as the Fish-Hawk, P. Carolinensis, has 

 been generally considered as identical with the European species, but it is said to be somewhat 

 larger, the female measuring thirty inches, and the marks on the breast being heart-shaped and 

 circular instead of narrow and lanceolate, as in the European osprey. It is abundant on the sea- 

 coasts and those of the interior waters of the United States. Wilson says : " This formidable, vig- 

 orous-winged, and well-known bird subsists altogether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, 

 creeks, and rivers, procuring his prey by his own active skill and industry, and seeming no further 

 dependent on the land than as a mere resting-place, or, in the usual season, a spot of deposit for 

 its nest, its eggs, and its young." It is migratory, arriving on the coasts of the Middle States late 

 in March ; its arrival is regarded by the fishermen as the happy signal of the return of the vast 

 shoals of herring, shad, and other fishes which it follows, and on which it preys. In Europe the 

 osprey builds on the ground, or on rocks and old ruins ; here it makes its nest in the top of de- 

 cayed trees. This consists externally of a huge mass of sticks, each from half an inch to an inch and 

 a half in diameter and two or three feet long; these cire piled four feet high, and are intermixed 

 with corn-stalks, sea-weed, turf, mullen-stalks, and the like, the whole being lined with grass. 

 The huge structure is visible for half a mile. 



"Unhke other rapacious birds," says Nuttall, "the ospreys may be almost considered gregari- 



HEAD AND FOOT OF THE OSPRET. 



