14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Audubon figures ^ the Fish Hawk grasping a weakfish (Cynos- 

 cion regalis). 



I have frequently seen Fish Hawks capture alewives {Pomolobus 

 pseudoharengus) , menhaden {Br evoortiatyr annus), roach {Abramis 

 crysoleucas) , and carp (^Cyprinus carpio), along the Delaware 

 River. Once at Cape May, New Jersey, I saw a Fish Hawk fly 

 over with a large writhing eel in its talons, which shortly forced 

 it to alight in a near-by field. At the off-shore pounds, off Re- 

 hoboth in Delaware, and Ocean City in Maryland, numbers of 

 Fish Hawks resort. They sit on the posts supporting the nets, 

 and, as they desire, fly down and lift out a fish. The species I 

 have seen them secure in this fashion are sea-robins (Frionotus 

 evolans strigatus), croakers (Micropogan undulatus), weak-fish 

 {Cynoscion regalis), flounders (Paralichthys dentatus), and ale- 

 wives. Doubtless from the multitudes of fish entrapped they 

 also secure many others. 



Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) . The Kingfisher appears to bear 

 the same ecological relation to our smaller bodies of water that 

 the Fish Hawk does to the larger. Often it is resident in the 

 Delaware River valley. 



The food of the Kingfisher appears to consist entirely of small 

 fishes, of which he takes a continual and heavy toll. Mr. Richard 

 F. Miller says that along the Wissinoming Creek, in Philadel- 

 phia, he flushed a Kingfisher from a favorite perch. This was on 

 February 10th 1902, and as snow covered the ground, a dead 

 minnow (Fundulus diaphanus f), Sind several disgorged balls of 

 fish-scales and bones, probably of minnows, and large as small 

 grapes, were found underneath the perch. 



On May 8th, 1913, Mr. Miller sent me a lot of fragments of 

 food belonging to a nest dug out of a burrow in a bank, about 

 eight feet in elevation. This was located along the Pennypack 

 Creek near Vereeville, in Philadelphia, and contained seven 

 fresh eggs. The enlarged end of the nest was seventeen inches 

 deep, the tunnel fifty inches deep and four inches wide at the 

 aperture. The fragments consisted of crawfishes (Cambarus 

 bartonii), roach (Abramis crysoleucas), redfins (Noiropis cornutus) 

 and suckers {Catostomus commersonii) . 



1 Birds of America, i, 1840, PI. 15. 



