NIGHT AND DAY HUNTERS 183 



Is there a more exhilarating sight in the bird kingdom 

 than the plunge of the osprey? From the height where 

 it has been circliag and coursing above the water, it will 

 quickly check itself and hover for an iustant at sight of a 

 fish swimming near the surface; then, closing its great 

 wings, it darts like a streak of lightning, and with unerring 

 aim strikes the water with a loud splash. Perhaps it will 

 disappear below for a second before it rises, scattering spray 

 about it in its struggles to clear the surface, and fly upward 

 with its prey grasped in its long, powerful, rough talons, 

 perfectly adapted for holding slippery prey. The fish is 

 never carried tail end foremost; if caught so, the osprey has 

 been seen turning it about in mid-air. Small fry are 

 usually eaten awing; larger game are borne off to a perch, 

 to be devoured at leisure; and it is said that when an osprey 

 strikes its talons through the flesh of a fish too heavy to be 

 lifted from the water, the prey turns captor and drowns his 

 tormentor, whose claws reaching his vitals soon end his 

 life, when bird and fish, locked in a death grasp, are washed 

 ashore. The osprey rarely touches fish of value for the 

 table; catfish, suckers, and such prey as no one grudges it 

 form its staple food. Little wonder it is often called the 

 fish hawk. Ospreys and hawks belong to distinct families, 

 however, and strictly speaking this bird is not a hawk at 

 aU. 



The bald eagle, perched at a high point of vantage, takes 

 instant note of a successful fisher, and with a majestic 

 swoop arrives before the osprey has a chance to devoiu* its 

 prey. Now a desperate chase begins if the intimidated 

 bird has not already relaxed its grasp of the prize; and pur- 

 suing the osprey higher and higher, the eagle relentlessly 

 torments it imtfl it is glad to drop the fish for the pirate to 



