THE FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY. 65 



in numbers, both during spring, when it shews itself along our Atlantic 

 shores, lakes, and rivers, and during autumn, when it retires to warmer 

 climes. At these seasons, it appears in flocks of eight or ten individuals, 

 following the windings of our shores in loose bodies, advancing in easy sail- 

 ings or flappings, crossing each other in their gyrations. During the period 

 of their stay in the United States, many pairs are seen nestling, rearing their 

 young, and seeking their food within so short a distance of each other, that 

 while following the margins of our eastern shores, a Fish Hawk, or a nest 

 belonging to the species, may be met with at every short interval. 



The Fish Hawk may be said to be of a mild disposition. Not only do 

 these birds live in perfect harmony together, but they even allow other birds 

 of very different character to approach so near to them as to build their nests 

 of the very materials of which the outer parts of their own are constructed. 

 I have never observed a Fish Hawk chasing any other bird whatever. So 

 pacific and timorous is it, that, rather than encounter a foe but little more 

 powerful than itself, it abandons its prey to the White-headed Eagle, which, 

 next to man, is its greatest enemy. It never forces its young from the nest, 

 as some other Hawks do, but, on the contrary, is seen to feed them even 

 when they have begun to procure food for themselves. 



Notwithstanding all these facts, a most erroneous idea prevails among our 

 fishermen, and the farmers along our coasts, that the Fish Hawk's nest is 

 the best scare-croiv they can have in the vicinity of their houses or grounds. 

 As these good people affirm, no Hawk will attempt to commit depredations 

 on their poultry, so long as the Fish Hawk remains in the country. But 

 the absence of most birds of prey from those parts at the time when the Fish 

 Hawk is on our coast, arises simply from the necessity of retiring to the 

 more sequestered parts of the interior for the purpose of rearing their young 

 in security, and the circumstance of their visiting the coasts chiefly at the 

 period when myriads of water-fowl resort to our estuaries at the approach of 

 winter, leaving the shores and salt-marshes at the return of spring, when the 

 Fish Hawk arrives. However, as this notion has a tendency to protect the 

 latter, it may be so far useful, the fisherman always interposing when he sees 

 a person bent upon the destruction of his favourite bird. 



The Fish Hawk differs from all birds of prey in another important par- 

 ticular, which is, that it never attempts to secure its prey in the air, although 

 its rapidity of flight might induce an observer to suppose it perfectly able to 

 do so. I have spent weeks on the Gulf of Mexico, where these birds are 

 numerous, and have observed them sailing and plunging into the water, at a 

 time when numerous shoals of flying-fish were emerging from the sea to 

 evade the pursuit of the dolphins. Yet the Fish Hawk never attempted to 

 pursue any of them while above the surface, but would plunge after one of 



Vol. I. 10 



