112 FISH HAWK, OR OS PREY. 



large as pullets, and full feathered. Seventeen days after, I my- 

 self ascended to this same hawk's nest, where I found the two 

 remaining young ones seemingly full grown. They made no 

 attempts to fly, though they both placed themselves in a stern 

 posture of defence as I examined them at my leisure. The 

 female had procured a second helpmate ; but he did not seem 

 to inherit the spirit of his predecessor, for, like a true step- 

 father, he left the nest at my approach, and sailed about at a 

 safe distance with his mate, who showed great anxiety and 

 distress during the whole of my visit. It is universally asserted, 

 by the people of the neighbourhood where these birds breed, 

 that the young remain so long before they fly, that the parents 

 are obliged at last to compel them to shift for themselves, 

 beating them with their wings, and driving them from the 

 nest. But that they continue to assist them even after this, 

 I know to be a fact, from my own observation, as I have seen 

 the young bird meet its parent in the air, and receive from 

 him the fish he carried in his claws. 



The flight of the fish hawk, his manoeuvres while in search 

 of fish, and his manner of seizing his prey, are deserving of 

 particular notice. In leaving the nest, he usually flies direct 

 till he comes to the sea, then sails around, in easy curving 

 lines, turning sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently 

 without the least exertion, rarely moving the wings, his legs 

 extended in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length, 

 and curvature, or bend of wing, distinguishing him from all 

 other hawks. The height at which he thus elegantly glides 

 is various, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty, and 

 two hundred feet, sometimes much higher, all the while calmly 

 reconnoitering the face of the deep below. Suddenly he is 

 seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, 

 which he seems to survey for a few moments with such steadi- 

 ness, that he appears fixed in the air, flapping his wings. 

 This object, however, he abandons, or rather the fish he had 

 in his eye has disappeared, and he is again seen sailing around 

 as before. Now his attention is again arrested, and he defends 



