184 BIRDS 



seize and bear away, leaving it temporary peace. Again 

 the industrious osprey secures a glistening, wriggling 

 victim; again the eagle pursues his unwilling purveyor. 

 After unmerciful persecution, a number of ospreys will 

 band together and drive away the robber. 



Birds of this order show strong affection for their life- 

 long mates and the young, and for an old nest that is often 

 a true home at all seasons, and to which they retiu'n year 

 after year if unmolested, simply repairing damages in- 

 flicted by winter storms. The osprey also shows a marked 

 preference for a certain perch to which it carries its prey, 

 and there it will sit sometimes for hours at a time. The 

 ground below is heavily strewn with bones, scales, and 

 other indigestible parts of fish. An immense accumulation 

 of sticks, rushes, weed stallis, shredded bark, salt hay, odds 

 and ends gathered among the rubbish of seaside cottages, 

 feathers, and mud make old nests, with their annual ad- 

 ditions, bulky, conspicuous affairs in the tree-tops. New 

 nests are comparatively small platforms of sticks, con- 

 sidering the size of the bird. Both mates incubate. 

 Colonies of nesters are frequently reported along our 

 coasts, and instances of a pair of grackles utiUzing a corner 

 of the osprey's ample cradle for theirs are not rare. In 

 four weeks or less after their eggs are laid, the ospreys are 

 kept busy shredding food for their downy, helpless young. 

 One may readily name them by their white under parts. 



The Sparrow-hawk 



Length — 10 to 11 inches. Sexes the same size, a little 



larger than the robin. 

 Male — Top of head slaty blue, generally with a reddish 



