DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 13 



shores of the North East River, in Maryland. Haldeman men- 

 tions ' that it dives for fish in the Susquehanna, when not able 

 to rob the Fish Hawk. Audubon gives an interesting note of its 

 iish-eating habits.^ In the Perkiomen Creek he saw one secure 

 a number of redfins {Notropis cornutus) by wading through the 

 water and striking at the fish with its bill. 



Turkey Vulture ( Cathartes aura septentrionalis) . This familiar 

 bird frequently devours dead fish along our river shores. I 

 have seen numbers eating dead alewives (Poviolobus pseudo- 

 harengus) along the shores of the Bohemia River^ in Maryland. 



Fish Hawk (Pandion haliaetus carolinensis) . Found in our 

 region, except during the cold weather, the Fish Hawk is our 

 most formidable fish-eater. 



Wilson gives ^ the following interesting notes: 



' ' A shad was taken from a Fish Hawk near Great Egg Harbor, 

 •on which he had begun to regale himself, and had already eaten 

 a considerable portion of it, the remainder weighed six pounds. 

 Another Fish Hawk was passing Mr. Beasley's, at the same 

 place, with a large flounder in his grasp, which struggled and 

 shook him so, that he dropped it on the shore. The flounder 

 was picked up, and served the whole family for dinner. * * * 

 The hawk, however, in his fishing pursuits, sometimes mistakes 

 his mark, or overrates his strength, by striking fish too large 

 -and powerful for him to manage, by whom he is suddenly 

 dragged under; and though he sometimes succeeds in extri- 

 cating himself, after being taken three or four times down, yet 

 oftener both parties perish. The bodies of sturgeon and several 

 other large fish, with that of the Fish Hawk fast grappled in 

 them, have at different times been found dead on the shore cast 

 up by the waves." 



Ekstrom also mentions* that in the back of a large pike {Esox 

 lucius) he found the skeleton of an Osprey, which had been 

 -drawn below the water and drowned. Similar stories of other 

 .European birds, as Sea Eagles, have also been told. 



iProc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1863, p. 2. 



* Birds of America, i, 1840, p. 58. 

 »Amer. Ornith., i, 1828, p. 74. 



* Vet.-Akad. Handligar, 1831, p. 79. 



