1880. | Zoology. 529 
vation, I can attest that these hawks have not perceptibly dimin- 
ished in numbers in this vicinity, and I can find a dozen or more 
watching for prey, or going to and from the nest. Some of 
the nests are located near the banks of Taunton Great river, or 
haps I live in a paradise for fish-hawks, but I should not have 
been more surprised to have read that the robin, blue-bird and 
song sparrow were uncommon summer residents, and that but 
few of them bred in this region. Though not so numerous as 
swallows or blackbirds, if the phrase “common summer resident ” 
is applicable to any representative of our avifauna, it is applicable 
to Pandion halietus. The osprey begins to build a new, or much 
more commonly, to repair an old nest soon after their arrival. 
From two to four eggs are the usual complement, and incubation 
commences in May. While the female is setting, the male brings 
her food, and at times takes charge of the eggs as the mate goes 
off for an airing. One of the pair is on or in sight of the nest from 
the time incubation begins until the young are able to shift for 
themselves, I have repeatedly seen the female on the nest, and 
her mate perched on a limb of the tree preening his feathers or 
murmuring a not unmusical strain, evidently as a solace to his 
companion, while robins, blackbirds and sparrows lit upon the 
branches and sang their melodious refrains apparently unnoticed 
by the hawks. 
Harmless to the agriculturist, protected by the fisherman, 
watched with intense interest by all who care for our birds, 
Second to none in the matchless majesty of his mien, the fish- 
hawk is seldom molested save by the odlogist and ornithologist, 
or the mere collector of eggs—Alisha Slade, Somerset, Massachu- 
EUS 
PoLYMORPHOUS Anoponta.—Nearly all collectors of shells are 
familiar with the extensive synonomy of the European Anodonta 
Jgnea. Dr. Lea, in his Synopsis of the Unionidæ, reduces to its 
Synonomy more than one hundred specific names. It would seem 
that, in their descriptions of shells, the Old World naturalists 
have given specimen characteristics rather than more or less per- 
manent species diagnoses. This unfortunate polymorphous shell 
has thus afforded abundant material to the mere species monger, 
and has no doubt been a “ thorn in the flesh” to youthful collec- 
tors. This European shell, however, finds a rival, though on a 
much less extensive scale, among its American relatives. For 
