20 



FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY 



that he appears fixed in an^ flapping his wings. This object how- 

 ever he abandons, or rather the fish he had in his eye has disap- 

 peared, and he is again seen sailing around as before. Now his 

 attention is again arrested, and he descends with great rapidity; 

 but ere he reaches the surface, shoots off on another course, as if 

 ashamed that a second victim had escaped him. He now sails at 

 a short height above the surface, and by a zig-zag descent and with- 

 out seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, which after 

 carrying a short distance, he probably drops, or yields up to the 

 Bald Eagle, and again ascends, by easy spiral circles, to the higher 

 regions of the air, where he glides about in all the ease and majesty 

 of his species. At once from this sublime aerial height he descends 

 like a perpendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rush- 

 ing sound, and with the certainty of a rifle. In a few moments 

 he emerges, bearing in his claws his struggling prey, which he al- 

 ways carries head foremost, and having risen a few feet above the 

 surface, shakes himself as a water spaniel would do, and directs his 

 heavy and laborious course directly for the land. If the wind blow 

 hard, and his nest lie in the quarter from whence it comes, it is 

 amusing to observe with what judgment and exertion he beats to 

 windward, not in a direct line, that is, in the ivind's eye, but making 

 several successive tacks to gain his purpose. This will appear the 

 more striking when we consider the size of the fish which he some- 

 times bears along. A shad was taken from a Fish-Hawk near Great 

 Egg-Harbour, on which he had begun to regale himself, and had 

 already ate a considerable portion of it, the remainder weighed six 

 pounds. Another Fish-Hawk was passing Mr. Beasley's, at the same 

 place, with a large flounder in his grasp, which struggled and shook 

 him so, that he dropt it on the shore. The flounder was picked up, 

 and served the whole family for dinner. It is singular that the 

 Hawk never descends to pick up a fish which he happens to drop, 

 either on the land or on the water. There is a kind of abstemious 

 dignity in this habit of the Hawk, superior to the gluttonous vo- 



