FALCONIDyE. 21 



in the interior of the fur countries. The Osprey lays two or three eggs of a pale 

 cream-yellow colour, stained with blotches and spots of dull orange-brown. The 

 young are hatched early in June, are upwards of two months old before they can 

 fly, and are fed by the parent birds even after they quit the nest. Both young 

 and old retire to the south in October. I did not ascertain the exact northern 

 limits of the range of this species ; but during our coasting voyage along the 

 shores of the Arctic Sea we did not observe any kind of Eagle, and Hearne says 

 that none of them breed in the barren grounds north of Churchill. It seems less 

 capable of bearing cold than the Bald Eagle, as it quits the United States on the 

 approach of winter. Pennant informs us that it is very frequent in Kamtschatka, 

 and it is probably equally so on the Pacific coast of North America, thus extending 

 its range from the coast of Labrador quite across the continent. 



It lives almost exclusively on fish, which it takes alive, being very rarely 

 observed to attack birds or quadrupeds, or to feed on carrion ; Wilson remarks, 

 that it never even picks up a fish which it happens to drop either on land or water. 

 When looking out for its prey, it sails with great ease and elegance, in undulating 

 and curved lines, at a considerable altitude above the water, from whence it preci- 

 pitates itself upon its quarry and bears it off in its claws ; or it not unfrequently, 

 on the fish moving to too great a depth, stops suddenly in its descent, and hovers 

 for a few seconds in the air, like a kite or a kestril, suspending itself in the same 

 spot by a quick flapping of its wings ; it then makes a second and, in general, 

 unerring dart upon its prey, or regains the former altitude by an elegant spiral 

 flight. It seizes the fish with its claws, sometimes scarcely appearing to dip its 

 feet in the water, and at other times plunging entirely under the surface with force 

 sufficient to throw up a considerable spray # . It emerges again, however, so 

 speedily as to render it evident that it does not attack fish swimming at any great 

 depth. 



The versatility of the outer toe of the Osprey, the strength, curvature, and 

 sharpness of its claws, and the roughness of the soles of its feet, are peculiarities 

 of structure adapted to the better securing its slippery prey ; and the shortness 

 of its thigh feathers, unusual in the falcon tribe, is also evidently connected with its 

 fishing habits. So firm is its hold, that it is said not unfrequently to perish by 

 having the imprudence to fix its talons in a fish of such a size and strength as to 

 be capable of dragging it suddenly under water. The superior strength of the 



* Pennant informs us that its violent descent is compared by the Italians to the fall of lead into the water ; hence 

 they bestow on it the appellation of Auguista piumbina (leaden Eagle). " We never heard this name used, during six 

 years' residence in Italy, and the words are not Italian." Sw. 



