FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY. 335 
seeming no farther dependent on the land :han as a mere resting-place, 
or, in the usual season, a.spot of deposit for its nest, eggs, and young. 
‘The figure (158) is reduced to one third the size of life. 
_ The Fish Hawk is migratory, arriving on the coasts of New York 
and New Jersey about the twenty-first of March, and retiring to the 
south about the twenty-second ,of September. Heavy equinoctial 
storms may vary these periods of arrival and departure a few days; 
but long observation hag ascertained that they are kept with rermarka- 
ble regularity. On the arrival of these birds in the northern parts of 
the United States, in March, they sometimes find the bays and ponds 
frozen, and experience a difficulty in procuring. fish for many days. 
Yet there is no instance on record of their attacking birds, or inferior 
land animals, with intent to feed on them; though their great strength 
of flight, as well as of feet and claws, would seem to render this no 
difficult matter. But they no sooner arrive, than they wage war on 
the Bald Eagles, as against a horde of robbers and banditti; sometimes 
succeeding, by force of numbers and perseverance, in driving them 
- from their haunts, but seldom or never attacking them in single combat. 
The first appearance of the Fish Hawk in spring, is welcomed by 
the fishermen, as the happy signal of the approach of those vast shoals 
ef herring, shad, &c., that regularly arrive on our coasts, and enter 
not then be Proagiy into action, but they are often concealed in the spray occasion- 
ed by their rapid descent. ’ : s 
The size of a fish they are able to bear away is very great, and sometimes ex- 
ceeds their own weight. That of the female 1s little more than five pounds, and 
Mr. Audubon has figured his specimen with a weak fish more than that weight; 
while our author mentions a shad that, when partly eaten, weighed more than six 
pounds. These authenticated accounts lead us almost to credit the more marvellous 
stories of that amusing sporting writer, Mr. Loyd. - 
That gentleman relates, that in Sweden the Eagle sometimes strikes so large a 
. pike, that not being able to disengage his talons, he is carried under water and drown- 
ed. Dr. Mullenborg vouched for this, by the fact of having himself seen an enor- 
mous pike, with an Eagle fastened to his back, lying dead on a piece of ground 
which had been overflowed, but from whence the water had retreated. 
He mentions also an account of a struggle between an Eagle and a pike, wit- 
nessed by a gentleman, on the Gotha river, at no great distance from Wenersborg. 
In this instance, when the Eagle first seized the pike, he was enabled to lift him a 
short distance into the air, but the weight of the fish, together with its struggles, soon 
carried them back again to the water, under which for a while they both disappear- 
ed. Presently, however, the Eagle again came to the surface, uttering the most 
piercing cries, and making apparently every endeavor to extricate his talons, but 
all in vain; and, after straggling, he was carried under water. ; 
Savigny formed his well-marked genus Pandion from this species, which we now 
adopt. The Osprey is common to both continents, and I possess one from, New 
Holland in no way different. [t is met with in England occasionally, but, according 
to Montague, is particularly plentiful in Devonshire. In Scotland, a pair or two 
may be found about most of the Highland lochs, where they fish, and, during the 
breeding season, build on the ruined towers so common 6n the edges or insulated 
rocks of these wild waters. The nest is an immense fabric of rotten sticks — 
Ttself a burden for the tallest tree, 
and is generally placed, if such exists, on the top of a chimney, and if this be want- 
ing, on the highest summit of the building. An aged tree may sometimes be cho- 
sen, but ruins are always preferred, if near. They have the same propensity of 
returning to an old station with those of America ; and if one is shot, } mate is soon 
found, and brought to the ancient abode. Loch Lomond, Loch Awe, and Killchurn 
Castle, and Loch Menteith, have been long breeding places. — Ep. 
‘ 
- \ 
