FISH HAWK, OR. OSPREY. 34] 
had many opportunities of witnessing. The Grakles, or Crow Black- 
birds, are permitted by the Fish Hawk to build their nests among the 
interstices of the sticks of which his own is constructed, —several 
pairs of Grakles taking up their abode there, like humble vassals 
around the castle of their chief, laying, hatching their young, and 
living together in mutual harmony. I have found no less than four 
of these nests clustered around the sides of the former, and a fifth 
fixed on the nearest branch of the adjoining tree; as if the proprie- 
tor of this last, unable to find an unoccupied corner on the premises, 
had been anxious to share, as much as possible, the company and pro 
tection of this generous bird. 
The Fish Hawk is twenty-two inches in length, and five feet three 
inches in extent; the bill is deep black, the upper as well as lower 
cere, ie the base of the lower mandible has a loose moveable skin,) 
and also the sides of the mouth, from the nostrils backwards, are light 
blue; crown and hind head pure white, front streaked with brown; 
through the eye, bar of dark blackish brown passed to the neck 
behind, which, as well as the whole upper parts, is deep brown, the 
edges of the feathers lighter; shafts of the wing-quills, brownish 
white; tail slightly rounded, of rather a paler brown than the body, 
crossed with eight bars of very dark brown; the wings, when shut, 
extend about an inch beyond the tail, and are nearly black towards 
the tips; the inner vanes of both quill and tail-feathers are whitish, 
barred with brown; whole lower parts, pure white, except the thighs, 
which are covered with short plumage, and streaked down the fore part 
with pale brown; the legs and feet are a very pale light blue, prodig- 
iously strong and disproportionably large ; they are covered with flat 
scales of remarkable strength and thickness, resembling, when dry, the 
teeth of a large rasp, particularly’ on the soles, intended, no doubt, to 
enable the bird to-seize with more security his slippery prey; the 
thighs are long, the legs short, feathered a little below the knee, and, 
as well as the feet and claws, large; the latter hooked into semi- 
circles, black, and very: sharp-pointed; the iris of the eye, a fiery 
yellow orange. 
The female is full two inches longer; the upper part of the head 
of a less pure white, and the brown streaks on the front spreading 
more over the crown; the throat and upper part of the breast are also 
dashed with large blotches of a pale brown, and the bar passing 
through the eye, not of so dark a brown. The toes of both are ex- 
ceedingly strong and warty, and the hind claw a full inch and a quar- 
ter in diameter. The feathers on the neck and hind head are long 
and narrow, and generally erected when the bird is irritated, resem- 
bling those of the Eagle. The eye is destitute of the projecting bone 
common to most of the Falcon tribe; the nostril, large, and of a cury- 
ing, triangular shape. On dissection, the two glands om the rump, 
which supply the bird with oil for lubricating its feathers to protect 
them from the wet, were found to be remarkably large, capable, when 
opened, of admitting the end of the finger, and contained a large 
quantity of white, greasy matter, and some pure yellow oil; the gall 
was in small quantity. The numerous convolutions and length of the 
intestines surprised me; when carefully extended, they measured 
within an inch or two of nine feet, and were no thicker than those of 
29 * 
