OSPREY OR FISH-HAWK. 363 



St Lawrence, is very great. While on the St John's River in Florida, 

 on the 7th of February 1832, I found the Fish-Hawks very abundant, 

 and all sitting on their eggs, many of which contained chicks nearly 

 ready for emerging. The birds, therefore, must have paired at least 

 six weeks previous to that date. I vpas, however, surprised to find 

 them more tardy in this respect than the White-headed Eagles, which 

 had young able to fly. Three hundred miles farther south, the Fish- 

 Hawks had laid their eggs a month earlier. Between the Floridas and 

 New Jersey, or in the districts usually called the Middle States, they 

 rarely begin to lay before the 15th of April. In the State of Maine they 

 seldom arrive before the middle of May ; and in Labrador the period of 

 their appearance is from the 1st to the 10th of June. It would be in- 

 teresting to discover whether the Fish-Hawk, which breeds near the 

 mouths of the Mississippi in January, breeds again in the coiu-se 

 of the same season between that place and Labrador or not. I have 

 thought it not unlikely that it does ; but have no facts to support the 

 opinion. 



" The Fish-Hawk is far from always placing its nest on very high 

 trees, but accommodates itself to any situation that may occur, provided 

 other circumstances are favourable. On the Keys of the Floridas, its 

 nest is often seen placed on a mangrove, not more than seven or eight 

 feet above the water. In two instances, I saw it there on the ground, 

 and once on the roof of a low house. In the latter case, the nest had 

 been resorted to three successive years. In Labrador, the nests which 

 I saw were built on the stunted firs, there being no trees in the coun- 

 try deserving the name. In the Floridas I saw several nests placed 

 close to those of Herons, Ibises, and Cormorants, all these species liv- 

 ing together in the greatest harmony." 



Dr Richardson mentions their arrival in the Fur Countries as 

 taking place in the months of March or April, and says that they im- 

 mediately commence building their nests, or reoccupy old ones. The 

 utmost northern range at this season was not ascertained ; but as 

 Hearne says that none breed in the barren ground north of Church- 

 hill, it is presumable that those which are found on the north-west 

 coast of the continent, where they are mentioned as having been seen 

 by Dr Townsend, may, as Pennant states, be also found in Kamts- 

 chatka. I saw very few birds of this species near or within those por- 

 tions of the Texas which I visited in 1837. 



