556 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — RAPTOMES— ACCIPITRES. 



32. Family PANDIONID^ ; Fish Hawks ; Ospreys. 



88. 



530. 



Seo page 498. Plu- 

 mage peculiar, close 

 and firm, imbricated, 

 oily, lacking after- 

 shafts ; head densely 

 feathered up to the 

 eyes ; occipital feath- 

 ers lengthened ; legs 

 chisely feathered, with- 

 out any sign of a fiag; 

 quills of the wings and 

 tail acuminate, stiff and 

 hard, and the primary 

 coverts of similar char- 

 acter. Feet immense- 

 ly large and strong, 

 roughly gran ular-retic- 

 nlate ; tarsi little feath- 

 ered above in front; 

 toes all free to the 

 base, the outer versa- 

 tile. Claws very large, 

 all of equal lengths, 

 subcyliudric or taper- 

 ing terete, not being 

 scooped out under- 



neatl], but all compressed, and the middle one shar))ly grooved on the inner face. Bill tooth- 

 less, contiacted at the cere, elsewhere inflated, with very large hook; gonys convex, ascending; 

 nostrils oval, oblique, without tubercle, and in the edge of the cere. The peculiarities of the 

 plumage and of tlic feet ar(^ in evident adaptation to the semi- aquatic piscivorous habits of 

 these "fishing hawks," which require a water-proof covering, and great talons to grasp their 

 slippery quarry. The structural characters are rather those of the buteonine than the falconine 

 birds of prey, in tlie eoracoid un-angement, etc. The supraorbital shield is rudimentary, 

 leaving the eye flush with the side f)f the head. The family consists of a single genus, and 

 probably but one cosmopolitan species, the well-lcmiwu Osprey, Paiidion haliaetiis. 

 PANDl'ON. (Gr. navdlav, Lat. Pandion, nom. propr. Fig. SS.'J.) Ospreys. To the 

 foregoing add: Wings very long, jHiinted ; 2d and 3d primaries longest; 1st between 3d and 

 5th; 3 outer ones abruptly emarginate on inner ^vebs, and 2d to 4th sinuate on outer webs. 

 Tail short, scarcely or not half as long as thi' wing. Sexes alike; 9 larger. Young similar. 

 P. haliae'tus. (See Ilaliaetus.) Fisn Hawk. Osprey. Adult $ 9 : Above, dark vau- 

 dyke-brown, blackening on the quills, the feathers of the upper parts more or less completely 

 edged with white — the older the bird, the more consiiicutuis the white markings. Tail dark 

 brown with dusky bars, white tip and shafts, and inner webs of all but the middle pair of 

 feathers regularly barred with white and dark. Head, neck, and under parts -(vhite, the crown 

 more or less extensively streaked with blackish, and a heavy blackish postocular stripe to the nape ; 

 the breast more or less spcitted with dusky bnjwn ; the white more or less tinged with tawuy in 

 some places, eRi)ecially under the wings and on the liead. Coloratitni very variable in the relative 



Fig. 3S5. — The Fish Hawk, or Osprey. (After J. Wolf.) 



