418 FJSH HAWK. 



each other on finding their home again. Their caresses are mvitual. 

 They begin to augment their habitation, or to repair the injuries which it 

 may have sustained during the winter, and are seen saiHng together to- 

 wards the shores, to collect the drifted sea-weeds with which they line the 

 nest anew. They alight on the beach, search for the driest and largest 

 weeds, collect a mass of them, clench them in their talons, and fly towards 

 their nest with the materials dangling beneath. They both alight and 

 labour together. In a fortnight the nest is complete, and the female de- 

 posits her eggs, which are three or four in number, of a broadly oval 

 form, yellowish-white, densely covered with large irregular spots of red- 

 dish-brown. 



The nest is generally placed in a large tree in the immediate vicinity 

 of the water, whether along the seashore, on the margins of the inland 

 lakes, or by some large river. It is, however, sometimes to be seen in 

 the interior of a wood, a mile or more from the water. I have concluded 

 that, in the latter case, it was on account of frequent disturbance, or at- 

 tempts at destruction, that the birds had removed from their usual haunt. 

 The nest is very large, sometimes measuring fully four feet across, and is 

 composed of a quantity of materials sufficient to render its depth equal to 

 its diameter. Large sticks, mixed with sea- weeds, tufts of strong grass, and 

 other materials, form its exterior, while the interior is composed of sea- 

 weeds and finer grasses. I have not observed that any particular species 

 of tree is preferred by the Fish Hawk. It places its nest in the forks of 

 an oak or a pine with equal pleasure. But I have observed that the tree 

 chosen is usually of considerable size, and not unfrequently a decayed one. 

 I dare not, however, affirm that the juices of the plants which compose the 

 nest, ever become so detrimental to the growth of a tree as ultimately to 

 kill it. In a few instances, I have seen the Fish Crow and the Purple 

 Grakle raising their families in nests built by them among the outer 

 sticks of the Fish Hawk's nest. 



The male assists in incubation, during the continuance of which the 

 one bird supplies the other with food, although each in turn goes in quest 

 of some for itself. At such times the male bird is now and then observed 

 rising to an immense height in the air, over the spot where his mate is 

 seated. This he does by ascending almost in a direct line, by means of 

 continued flappings, meeting the breeze with his white breast, and occa- 

 sionally uttering a cackling kind of note, by which the bystander is 

 enabled to follow him in his progress. When the Fish Hawk has at- 



