36-2 OSPREY OR FISH-HAWK. 



expanded over the whole anterior surface ; the sterno-tracheal muscles 

 or slips also very large ; and there is a single pair of inferior laryngeal 

 muscles going to the first bronchial ring. The bronchi are short and 

 wide, one of 16, the other of 18 rings. 



The heart is 2 inches 7 twelfths in length, 2 inches in its greatest 

 breadth. The lobes of the liver are about equal, being 2 inches 7 

 twelfths in their greatest length. The gall-bladder is elliptical, 1\ 

 inch long. The left thoracic cell is 2^ inches long, the left abdominal 

 4 inches. 



OSPREY OR FISH-HAWK. 



Falco Haliaetus, Linn. 



PLATE LXXXI. Vol. I. p. 415. 



The opinion emitted by Wilson and myself that this bird passes 

 southward beyond the limits of the United States, to spend the winter, 

 is only correct in a very limited degree. Observations made by me 

 since the publication of my first volume, have clearly shewn that the 

 greater number spend at least the winter in the Floridas, where they 

 breed at an earlier period than in perhaps any other part of North 

 America. These facts were transmitted by me to my highly esteemed 

 and learned friend William Macgillivkay, Esq. of Edinbm'gh, in a 

 letter addressed to him on the 15th of June 1835, and which was 

 printed in his valuable volume on the " Rapacious Birds of Great Bri- 

 tain" :— 



" My dear Friend, — Since the publication of the first volume of my 

 ' Ornithological Biography,' in which an account of the habits of the 

 Fish-Hawk is given, I have had many opportvmities of extending my 

 acquaintance with it, and have traced it along the whole extent of the 

 Atlantic coast of the United States, and even as far north as Labrador, 

 where it breeds. I have the greatest pleasure in presenting you with 

 the result of my observations, which you may use in whatever way you 



please. 



" The difference between the periods at which this species breeds 

 along the coast, from the Gulf of Mexico to the northern shores of the 



