FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY 



15 



in diameter, and two or three feet in length, piled to the height of 

 four or five feet, and from two to three feet in breadth ; these were 

 intermixed with corn-stalks, sea-weed, pieces of wet turf in large 

 quantities, mullein-stalks, and lined with dry sea-grass ; the whole 

 forming a mass very observable at half a mile's distance, and large 

 enough to fill a cart, and form no inconsiderable load for a horse. 

 These materials are so well put together, as often to adhere in large 

 fragments after being blown down by the wind. My learned and 

 obliging correspondent of New York, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, ob- 

 serves, that " A sort of superstition is entertained in regard to the 

 Fish-Hawk. It has been considered a fortunate incident to have a 

 nest, and a pair of these birds, on one's farm. They have therefore 

 been generally respected; and neither the axe nor the gun has been 

 lifted against them. Their nest continues from year to year. The 

 same couple, or another as the case may be, occupies it season after 

 season. Repairs are duly made, or when demolished by storms it is 

 industriously rebuilt. There was one of these nests, formerly, upon 

 the leafless summit of a venerable chesnut-tree on our farm, direct- 

 ly in front of the house, at the distance of less than half a mile. 

 The withered trunk and boughs, surmounted by the coarse wrought 

 and capacious nest, was a more picturesque object than an obelisk. 

 And the flights of the Hawks as they went forth to hunt — returned 

 with their game — exercised themselves in wheeling round and round 

 and circling about it, were amusing to the beholder almost from 

 morning to night. The family of these Hawks, old and young, was 

 killed by the Hessian Jagers, A succeeding pair took possession 

 of the nest; but in the course of time, the prongs of the trunk so 

 rotted away, that the nest could no longer be supported. The 

 Hawks have been obliged to seek new quarters. We have lost this 

 part of our prospect; and our trees have not afforded a convenient 

 site for one of their habitations since." 



About the first of May the female Fish-Hawk begins to lay her 

 eggs, which are commonly three in number, sometimes only two, 



