656 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — BAPTOBES — A CCIPITBES. 



32. Family PANDIONID^ : Fish Hawks ; Ospreys. 



88 



i30. 



See page 498. Plu 

 mage peculiar, closo 

 and firm, imbricated, 

 oily, lacking after- 

 shafts ; head densely 

 feathered up to the 

 eyes; occipital feath- 

 ers lengthened; legs 

 closely feathered, with- 

 out any sign of a iiag; 

 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 granular-retic- 

 ulate; tarsi little feath- 

 ered above in ft'ont; 

 toes all free to the 

 base, the outer versa- 

 tile. Claws very large, 

 all of equal lengths, 

 subcylindric or taper- 

 ing terete, not being 

 scooped out under- 

 neath, but all compressed, and the middle one sharply grooved on the inner face. Bill tooth- 

 less, contracted 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 the feet are 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 the coraooid arrangement, etc. The supraorbital shield is rudimentary, 

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

 probably but one cosmopolitan spedes, the well-known Osprey, Pandion hdliaStus. 

 PANDl'ON. (Gr. Haviiav, Lat. Pandion, nom. propr. Fig. 385.) Ospreys. To the 

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

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

 Tail short, scarcely or not half as long as the wing. Sexes alike ; ? larger. Young similar. 

 P. taaliae'tus. (See Ealiaetus.) Fish Hawk. Osprey. Adult $ ? : Above, dark van- 

 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 conspicuous the white markings. Tail dark 

 brown vrith 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 white, the crown 

 more or less extensively streaked with blackish , an d a heavy blackish postooular stripe to the nape ; 

 the breast more or less spotted with dusky brown ; the white more or less tinged with tawny in 

 gome places, especially under the wings and on the head. Coloration very variable in the relative 



Fig. 385. — Tlie Fish Hawk, or Osprey. (After J. Wolf.) 



