104 FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY. 



the number may correspond to the long life and vigorous 

 health of this noble bird. Why there are but two young in 

 a season, is easily explained. Nature has been studiously par- 

 simonious of her physical strength, from whence the tribes of 

 animals incapable to resist, derive security and confidence." 



The eagle is said to live to a great age, — sixty, eighty, and, 

 as some assert, one hundred years. This circumstance is 

 remarkable, when we consider the seeming intemperate habits 

 of the bird. Sometimes fasting, through necessity, for several 

 days, and at other times gorging itself with animal food till its 

 craw swells out the plumage of that part, forming a large 

 protuberance on the breast. This, however, is its natural 

 food, and for these habits its whole organisation is particularly 

 adapted. It has not, like men, invented rich wines, ardent 

 spirits, and a thousand artificial poisons, in the form of soups, 

 sauces, and sweetmeats. Its food is simple, it indulges freely, 

 uses great exercise, breathes the purest air, is healthy, vigor- 

 ous, and loug lived. The lords of the creation themselves 

 might derive some useful hints from these facts, were they 

 not already, in general, too wise, or too proud, to learn from 

 their inferiors, the fowls of the air and beasts of the field. 



FISH HAWK, OE OSPREY. {Falco lialicetus.) 



PLATE XXXVII.— Fig. 1. 



Carolina Osprey, Lath. Syn. i. p. 46.-26. A. — Falco piscator, Briss. i. p. 3G1. 14. 

 362. 15. — Faucon Pecheur de la Caroline, Buff. i. p. 142. — Fishing Hawk, 

 Catesby, Car. i. p. 2.— Turt. Syst. i. 149.—Peale's Museum, No. 144. 



PANDION HALI^EETUS.-Sayigky* 



Le Balbuzard, Cur. Regn. Anim. i. p. 316.— Aigle Balbuzard, Temm. Man. i. p. 

 47.— Balbusardus halisetus, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 51.— Osprey, Falco halisee- 

 tus, Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. i. p. 12. pi. 4. — Falco balisetus (sub-gen. Pan- 

 dion), Bonap. Synop. p. 26. — The Fish Hawk, or Osprey, Aud. pi. 81. male 

 Orn. Biog. i. 415. — Aquila (Pandion) haliseeta, North. Zool. ii. p. 20. 



This formidable, vigorous-winged, and well known bird, 

 subsists altogether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, 



* This is the type of another aquatic group, and a real fisher. It does 

 not, like the white-headed eagle, though fond of fish, subsist only upon 



