WINGED ROBBERS AND NEST-BUILDERS. 1 49 



worthy and curious fact that insects, gnats, dragon- 

 flies, moths, etc., have larger wings, in proportion 

 to their size and weight, than the sailing birds, 

 such as the ospreys, eagles and albatrosses. None 

 of the smaller birds can long sustain themselves 

 in the air without the beating of their pinions ; 

 but these heavy weights can scale and soar for 

 hours without any apparent movement of the 

 wing, in some mysterious way which they have 

 not seen fit to divulge to man. 



The example of the flying kite has often been 

 quoted ; namely, " the string and hand are to the 

 kite what the weight of the bird is to the inclined 

 plane of th^ wing," but no one has ever beheld 

 that interesting toy perform such wonderful aerial 

 tricks as these remarkable kings of the air. 



The osprey, or fish-hawk as he is often called in 

 New England, is the only species in the genus 

 Pandion. The male is larger than the female. 

 This is an exception to the majority of cases in 

 the hawk tribe. In some species the difference in 

 the measurement of the sexes is very great; the 

 husband being three or four sizes smaller than the 

 wife, and by no means as attractive in plumage. 



There is a large, white muffled robber, a native 

 of the Arctic regions, who in winter makes incur- 



