124 PANDION HALIAETUS. 



solitary occasion in Galle harbour, in which locality I myself saw it in March 1872. During the period of its 

 stay it is tolerably common ou the Jaffna lake and about the shoal water surrounding the adjacent islands 

 and skirting the coast as far south as Manaar. In this latter island, Mr. Simpson, of the Indian Telegraph 

 Department, who resides there, informs me it is to be met with all the year round. Should this gentleman be 

 correct in his observations, it is in all probability a resident likewise in the neighbouring island of Ilamisserum, 

 where I have seen it in January and March in greater numbers than anywhere else. Lord Tweeddale's speci- 

 mens were procured in the north of the island. At Trincomalie I observed it on several occasions during two 

 successive seasons, and in February 1877 I met with an example near Morotuwa, at the head of the Panadura 

 lake, and not ten miles from Colombo. I have no record of the Osprey having been seen on any of the large 

 inland tanks in the north of the island, and I believe it confines itself exclusively to the sea-coast in Ceylon. 



The Fish-Hawk, although nowhere very numerically abundant, inhabits suitable localities throughout the 

 entire globe, with the exception of the island continent of Australia, its adjacent islands, including New Zealand, 

 parts of the Malay archipelago, and all but the northern parts of South America. There are certain places 

 in which it is not found, and some from which it is unaccountably absent, such as the Black Sea, from 

 which, according to Mr. Dresser's remarks of Prof. Nordinann's experience, it has not yet been recorded. 

 In Palestine its absence from one spot is noteworthy; Canon Tristram remarks (loc. tit.), " In spite of the 

 amazing abundance of fish in the Lake of Galilee, we never noticed this bird there, probably because of 

 the absence of suitable cover." In other places it was always common in winter and in spring, and on the 

 lagoons near the mouth of the Kishon it was to be seen perched on the naked stumps projecting from the 

 water, a similar habit to that which I have observed in the north of Ceylon. It does not appear to be very 

 common in Spain. Lord Lilford says that it is found about Valencia; and Mr. H. Saunders discovered it 

 nesting in May on a crag, 700 feet above the sea, on the island of Dragonera. In Corsica and Sardinia it is 

 more often met with in winter than in summer. It inhabits the extreme north of Europe, and breeds as high 

 as Archangel, near which Messrs. H. Brown and Alston observed one of its eyries on the top of a gigantic 

 blasted pine. It used to be a common bird in the British isles ; but the constant robbery of its eyries has in 

 the end tended effectually to drive it from its accustomed haunts. It still breeds in a secluded spot in 

 Invcrnessshire, is occasionally met with in different places round our coasts, and now and then pays unexpected 

 visits to some of our inland waters — an account of one of which to the large reservoirs of the Paddington Canal, 

 in Bucks, is given in 'The Ibis' for 1865, by the Rev. H. Crewe. 



Turning to the New World, we find it recorded from many parts of the northern portion of the continent, 

 both on the seaboard and far inland, from many parts of the States, from Honduras, from the Antilles, and from 

 the northern parts of S. America. In Africa it is not so plentiful. Captain Shelley found it frequenting the 

 rocks on the banks of the Nile. Mr. Taylor met with it commonly in Egypt, and Mr. Drake did the same in 

 Tangiers. Finsch and Hartlaub record it from the eastern parts of the continent, and Layard from South 

 Africa. Governor Ussher, however, did not procure it on the Gold Coast, and it is, no doubt, less common 

 on the western side of the continent than on the eastern. It is found throughout the northern parts of Asia, 

 down the eastern coasts to Formosa, and occurs in Central Asia from Siberia to the Himalayas, which brings 

 us to the closer consideration of its distribution in India, in which empire it is, during the cold season, as 

 common as anywhere in the world. Jerdon remarks, " It is spread over all India, most abundant, of course, 

 along the coast, where there are numerous backwaters and lagoons, but common along all the large rivers, and 

 generally found at most of the larger lakes and tanks, even far inland." Mr. Hume, in his ' Bough Notes/ 

 says, "The Osprey is found throughout the lower ranges of the Himalayas in the rocky gorges of all the larger 

 streams, and along the coui - se of the Ganges and the Jumna from their mouths almost to their sources. I 

 have, from tinio to time, observed it in Cawnpoor, Etawah, Agra, and Allyghur districts. I met with it also on 

 the Sutledge, at the Sambhur Lake, and the Nugjufgurh jheel ; and I recently shot a very fine one close to 

 Saharunpoor, on the western Jumna canal." He likewise found it, though not in any considerable numbers, 

 on the Indus and larger sheets of water in Sindh; but on the coast, particularly in Kurrachee harbour, it was 

 much more common. From these remarks it will appear evident that the Osprey is well distributed throughout 

 northern India ; but in the southern part it is apparently chiefly confined to the sea-coast ; it is common enough 

 at Ilamisserum Island, and I have no doubt is equally so on both coasts of the peninsula ; but I find no record 

 of its having been noticed of late years in the inland districts. On the opposite side of the Bay of Bengal it 



