Crass I]. OS Fan fb ¥: 
Mr. Willughby had exceeded in his account of its 
weight; but as we had an opportunity of confirm- 
ing the words of the latter, from one of this fpecies 
juft taken, we here reftore it to the aquiline rank, 
under the name of the Ofprey : which was the name 
it was known by in England above one hundred and 
fixty years ago; as appears by Dr. Kay, or Caius’s 
defcription of it, who alfo calls it an eagle. 
This bird haunts rivers, lakes, and the fea- 
fhores. It builds its neft on the ground among 
reeds, and lays three or four white eggs of an el- 
liptical form ; rather lefs than thofe of a hen. 
It feeds chiefly on fith *, taking them in the fame 
manner as the fea eagle does, by precipitating itfelf 
on them, not by {wimming; its feet being formed 
like thofe of other birds of prey, for the left is not 
at all palmated, as fome copying the errors of anti- 
ent writers, affert it to be. The Itakans compare 
the violent defcent of this bird on its prey, to the 
fall of lead into water, and call it, Auguifta piumbi- 
na, or the leaden eagle. 
The bird here defcribed was a female; its weight 
was fixty-two ounces: the length twenty-three in- 
ches: the breadth five feet four inches: the. wing 
when clofed reached beyond the end of the tail; 
175 
NeEorT. 
Foop. 
DESCBEIP. 
that, as in all the hawk kind, confifts of twelve 
feathers: the two middle feathers were dufky ; 
© Turner {ays it preys alfo on coots, and other water fowl. 
N4 the 
