THE FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY. 67 



days after the arrival of the males, the love-season commences, and soon 

 after, incubation takes place. The loves of these birds are conducted in a 

 different way from those of the other Falcons. The males are seen playing 

 through the air amongst themselves, chasing each other in sport, or sailing 

 by the side or after the female which they have selected, uttering cries of 

 joy and exultation, alighting on the branches of the tree on which their last 

 year's nest is yet seen remaining, and doubtless congratulating each other on 

 finding their home again. Their caresses are mutual. They begin to aug- 

 ment their habitation, or to repair the injuries which it may have sustained 

 during the winter, and are seen sailing together towards the shores, to collect 

 the drifted sea-weeds with which they line the nest anew. They alight on 

 the beach, search for the driest and largest weeds, collect a mass of them, 

 elench them in their talons, and fly towards their nest with the materials 

 dangling beneath. They both alight and labour together. In a fortnight the 

 nest is complete, and the female deposits her eggs, which are three or four 

 in number, of a broadly oval form, yellowish-white, densely covered with 

 large irregular spots of reddish-brown. 



The nest is generally placed in a large tree in the immediate vicinity of 

 me water, whether along the seashore, on the margins of the inland lakes, or 

 by some large river. It is, however, sometimes to be seen in the interior of 

 a wood, a mile or more from the water. I have concluded that, in the latter 

 case, it was on account of frequent disturbance, or attempts at destruction, 

 that the birds had removed from their usual haunt. The nest is very large, 

 sometimes measuring fully four feet across, and is composed of a quantity of 

 materials sufficient to render its depth equal to its diameter. Large sticks, 

 mixed with sea-weeds, tufts of strong grass, and other materials, form its 

 exterior, while the interior is composed of sea-weeds and finer grasses. I 

 have not observed that any particular species of tree is preferred by the Fish 

 Hawk. It places its nest in the forks of an oak or a pine with equal pleasure; 

 but I have observed that the tree chosen is usually of considerable size, and 

 not unfrequently a decayed one. 



The male assists in incubation, during the continuance of which the one 

 bird supplies the other with food, although each in turn goes in quest of 

 some for itself. At such times the male bird is now and then observed 

 rising to an immense height in the air, over the spot where his mate is seat- 

 ed. This he does by ascending almost in a direct line, by means of continued 

 flappings, meeting the breeze with his white breast, and occasionally uttering 

 a cackling kind of note, by which the bystander is enabled to follow him in 

 his progress. When the Fish Hawk has attained its utmost elevation, which 

 is sometimes such that the eye can no longer perceive him, he utters a loud 

 shriek, and dives smoothly on half-extended wings towards his nest. But 



