!6trlJ*tore 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DBVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Ohoan of thi Audubon Iociitiii 



Vol. X July— August, 1908 No. 4 



The Fish Hawks of Gardiner's Island 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



With photographs by the author 



SINCE the publication of Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology' 

 the Fish Hawks of Gardiner's Island have figured in the literature of or- 

 nithology, and it is characteristic of their delightful home, that, owing to 

 the preserving influences of insular life, the birds are apparently nearly as abund- 

 ant there today as they were a hundred years ago. 



The volume (Vol. V) of Wilson's work in which the Fish Hawk is treated ap- 

 peared in 1812. In it the Mr. Gardiner who was then proprietor of the island, is 

 quoted as saying that there were at " least three hundred nests of Fish Hawks that 

 have young. ..." Today I estimate the number at between one hundred and 

 fifty and two hundred, but the difference between these figures and those of 

 181 2 may be less real than due to errors in estimate. In any event, Gardiner's 

 Island holds the largest Fish Hawk colony in this country — possibly the largest 

 in the world — and the conditions under which many of the birds nest offer 

 exceptional opportunities for a study of their habits. 



In Bird-Lore for December, 1903, I gave a brief account of some studies 

 made on Gardiner's Island early in June 1901, and in July 1902, and this is 

 now supplemented by the results of observations made on June 17-20 of the 

 present year. 



Mr. Gardiner tells me that the Fish Hawks arrive on the island March 

 20, and depart on September 20. That the same birds return year after year 

 to the same nest is commonly believed, and in at least one instance this belief 

 was proven true by Mr. Gardiner's grandfather who placed a metal band on 

 the tarsus of a Fish Hawk which for many seasons occupied a certain nest. 



Mr. Gardiner does not confirm current statements to the effect that the 

 Fish Hawks repair their nests in the fall; but in the spring there is much activity 

 in nest-building even by birds whose homes are apparently already habitable. 

 The birds gather sticks from the ground and, as I noticed in June last, they 

 also break them from the trees by flying at or dropping on branches and grasp- 

 ing them with their talons. Eel grass is a favorite nest-lining and the birds 



