232 The Falcon-like Birds 



also in other piscivorous Accipitres, as for example the genus Busarellus. The 

 plumage, while close and compact, is without aftershafts, thus agreeing with 

 the Owls. The bill is inflated, the cere depressed, and the nostrils not concealed 

 by bristles. They haye long, pointed wings in which the coverts as well as the 

 primaries are very hard and stiff. In color the Ospreys are dark brown or gray- 

 ish brown above and mainly pure white below, with slight variations in the 

 various races. The length is from twenty-two to twenty-five inches and the 

 spread of wings about five feet. 



Some three or four species of Ospreys have been described, but it is now 

 generally recognized that there is but a single species, which in different parts 

 of its range has assumed sufficient differences in size and plumage to warrant 

 being separated as more or less well marked subspecies. The principal or 

 central form is the European Osprey (Pandion haliaetus haliaetus] , which is found 

 throughout the Eastern Hemisphere and has the breast always spotted with 

 brownish. The next in importance is the American Osprey (P. h. carolinensis), 

 found throughout temperate and tropical America in general, except in the 

 Bahamas, where there is a local race sometimes recognized as the Bahama Os- 

 prey (P. h. ridgwayi). The first has the breast usually entirely without spots, 

 while the latter is a smaller form with the back paler than in the American 

 Osprey, and the bill much larger and more swollen. The smallest of all is the 

 Australian Osprey (P. h. leucocephalus) of Australia and the Indo-Malayan 

 islands. 



Habits. Inasmuch as the habits of the Ospreys are much the same wher- 

 ever found, the following account will largely be that of the American form, 

 which is a familiar bird to those who dwell near the ocean or large inland bodies 

 of water. In the more northern part of its range the Fish-Hawk is migratory, 

 coming in the early spring as the first harbinger of the breaking up of winter, the 

 males preceding the females by several days. They spend the winter mainly 

 in the Southern States, greatly augmenting, at that time, the number that remain 

 there the year around. These birds are much attached to their homes and 

 return year after year to the same nest, where if unmolested they rear an annual 

 brood. Like certain other birds of prey they are supposed to mate for life, and 

 many are the stories told of their devotion to each other. One particular inci- 

 dent may be cited. A pair of Fish-Hawks had their nest in a till locust tree. 

 "At a time when one of the birds, presumably the female, was on the nest, a 

 bolt of lightning struck the tree, killing the bird and demolishing the nest. 

 Strangely enough, the other Osprey, when returning only to find his home deso- 

 lated, took up his station upon the top of one of the uninjured trees close at 

 hand, and throughout the remainder of the summer, was seen day after day, 

 month after month, keeping his lonely vigil, apparently mourning the loss of 

 his mate. By those who lived in the vicinity it was asserted that he was never 

 missing from his post ; and many were the speculations indulged with regard to 

 the manner of his subsistence. Some inclined to the opinion that he went fishing 

 very early in the morning and so escaped observation; while others supposed 

 him to have been fed by other Fish-Hawks who took pity on his lonely state." 



