The Ospreys 231 



be seen following one another around, frequently uttering their call and circling 

 in and out among the treetops so fast as to make one dizzy to look at them. 

 Except during this season one seldom sees one of these birds unless it is flying, 

 and I have often^wondered if they did not at times sleep while on the wing. At 

 least I know that they usually, if not always, eat while flying, for I have many 

 times seen one sailing leisurely along, occasionally bending its head to tear a 

 piece from a small snake that it held in its talons, and I have never seen one 

 alight to eat its food, as other birds of prey do. Their food consists almost 

 entirely of reptiles. Small snakes seem to be a favorite article of food with 

 them. I never have seen one catch a bird, and believe they do not." 



They nest mainly in the top of very slender pine trees, rarely below ninety 

 feet from the ground and often as high as one hundred thirty feet. The 

 nest is rather a rude affair of sticks and moss, and the eggs usually two in 

 number, though three and rarely four have been found. The eggs are oval in 

 shape with an ashy white or delicate cream ground color, spotted and blotched 

 with different shades of brown. 



The Ospreys. (Subfamily PandionincE.} There has been a great deal of 

 discussion as to the proper systematic position of the Ospreys (Pandion), and 

 even now their status can hardly be regarded as definitely settled. From the 

 fact that they possess a more or less reversible outer toe, and also certain 

 peculiarities in the skeleton, they were long held to exhibit a more or less dis- 

 tinct transition between the diurnal birds of prey and the Owls; but since it 

 has been conclusively shown that the latter have little or nothing in common 

 with the former, and have been removed to the midst of the so-called "Pica- 

 rian" birds, a further examination of the various characters of the Ospreys has 

 been necessary. According to Pycraft the outer toe is not more reversible than 

 in ordinary Accipitres, and, all things considered, it seems likely that they find 

 their closest relatives among the Honey Buzzards and their allies, being by some 

 authorities, indeed, placed in the subfamily Pernina;, but it is perhaps best to 

 regard them as constituting by themselves a distinct subfamily (Pandionince). 



Ospreys, or Fish Hawks, as they are more commonly called in this country, 

 enjoy an almost cosmopolitan distribution, being absent only from southern 

 South America, New Zealand, Iceland, and some parts of Australia. They 

 are so well known that an extended description is perhaps unnecessary, yet a 

 few of the more important characters may be mentioned. When perching, 

 the toes are disposed as in ordinary diurnal birds of prey, but when they capture 

 a fish the toes are opposed in pairs, the outer toe being, as above pointed out, 

 quite reversible. This reversibility permits of a very secure hold on their prey, 

 which is usually an advantage, although, as will be shown later, the very secu- 

 rity of the hold works occasionally to their detriment. The feet are large and 

 powerful, the toes being unconnected and provided with very large, strongly 

 curved claws, which are of equal length, and narrowed and rounded on the under 

 sides. The whole of the rather short tarsus and the toes are covered with rough, 

 somewhat imbricated, projecting scales, and the under surface of the toes is 

 covered with quite prominent pointed spicules, an adaptive character, found 



