H4 FISH HAWK, OR OS PREY. 



his fishing pursuits, sometimes mistakes his mark, or over- 

 rates his strength, by striking fish too large and powerful for 

 him to manage, by whom he is suddenly dragged under ; and, 

 though he sometimes succeeds in extricating himself, after 

 being taken three or four times down, yet oftener both parties 

 perish. The bodies of sturgeon, and several other large fish, 

 with that of a fish hawk fast grappled in them, have, at differ- 

 ent times, been found dead on the shore, cast up by the waves. 

 The fish hawk is doubtless the most numerous of all its 

 genus within the United States. It penetrates far into the 

 interior of the country up our large rivers, and their head 

 waters. It may be said to line the sea-coast from Georgia to 

 Canada. In some parts I have counted, at one view, more 

 than twenty of their nests within half a mile. Mr Gardiner 

 informs me, that, on the small island on which he resides, 

 there are at least " three hundred nests of fish hawks that 

 have young, which, on an average, consume probably not less 

 than six hundred fish daily." Before they depart in the 

 autumn, they regularly repair their nests, carrying up sticks, 

 sods, &c, fortifying them against the violence of the winter 

 storms, which, from this circumstance, they would seem to 

 foresee and expect. But, notwithstanding all their precau- 

 tions, they frequently, on their return in spring, find them 

 lying in ruins around the roots of the tree ; and sometimes 

 the tree itself has shared the same fate. When a number of 

 hawks, to the amount of twenty or upwards, collect together 

 on one tree, making a loud squealing noise, there is generally 

 a nest built soon after on the same tree. Probably this con- 

 gressional assembly were settling the right of the new pair to 

 the premises ; or it might be a kind of wedding, or joyous 

 festive meeting on the occasion. They are naturally of a mild 

 and peaceable disposition, living together in great peace and 

 harmony ; for though with them, as in the best regulated 

 communities, instances of attack and robbery occur among 

 themselves, yet these instances are extremely rare. Mr 

 Gardiner observes, that they are sometimes seen high in the 



