CLASS II. AYES: ORDEE 1. RAPTORES. 
The OsPREY, Bald Buzzabd, or Fisnma Eagle — Balhusard Offraye of Le Maout ; Falco 
haliaetus of Linnseiis — P. haliaetus, is a large 
and powerful bird; tlie female, being a quar- 
ter larger than the male, measures twenty- 
five inches and weighs five pounds. The plu- 
mage is white below, with a few brown streaks 
and speckles on the throat; the whole of the 
upper part is brown ; the feathers on the 
thighs are close, and the legs short, stout, and 
grayish. In this part of its organization we 
see a beautiful instance of adaptation to its hab- 
its. The close thigh-feathers resist the action 
of the water, in which it plunges for its prey, 
while the talon of the outer toe is much larger 
than the inner one, and capable of being turned 
backward ; the under surfaces of all the toes are 
also very rough, and covered with protuberances, 
which enable it to secure its slippery prize. 
This bird usually flies at a considerable 
height, and lives chiefly on fishes, which it seizes 
along the sea-shore or in ponds and lakes, by 
descending upon them and bearing them off in 
its talons. It however occasionally seizes upon 
sea-fowl. Its strength is so great that it will lift 
from the water and carry away a fish of its own 
weight. Its greediness is said sometimes to ex- 
ceed its discretion, for it occasionally buries its 
talons in a fish too heavy to be borne away, and 
being unable or unwilling to extricate them, is 
carried beneath the water and drowned. This 
species is migratory, and is generally distributed 
throughout Europe, and in some places is abund- 
ant ; it is also found in parts of Africa and Asia. 
HEAD AKD TOOT OF THE ospRBT. Oth^r forclgu spccics of tfiis geuus are the 
White-headed Ospret, P. leucocephalus ; the Marine Eagle, P. ichthyaetus ; and the Small 
Marine Eagle, P. humilis. 
The American Ospret, popularly known among us as the Fish-Hawk, P. Carolinensis, has 
been generally considered as identical with the European species, but it is said to be somewhat 
larger, the female measuring thirty inches, and the marks on the breast being heart-shaped and 
circular instead of narrow and lanceolate, as in the European osprey. It is abundant on the sea- 
coasts and those of the interior waters of the United States. Wilson says : " This formidable, vig- 
orous-winged, and well-known bird subsists altogether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, 
creeks, and rivers, procuring his prey by his own active skill and industry, and seeming no further 
dependent on the land than as a mere resting-place, or, in the usual season, a spot of deposit for 
its nest, its eggs, and its young." It is migratory, arriving on the coasts of the Middle States late 
in March ; its arrival is regarded by the fishermen as the happy signal of the return of the vast 
shoals of herring, shad, and other fishes which it follows, and on which it preys. In Europe the 
osprey builds on the ground, or on rocks and old ruins ; here it makes its nest in the top of de- 
cayed trees. This consists externally of a huge mass of sticks, each from half an inch to an inch and 
a half in diameter and two or three feet long ; these are piled four feet high, and are intermixed 
with corn-stalks, sea-weed, turf, mullen-stalks, and the like, the whole being lined with grass. 
The huge structure is visible for half a mile. 
" Unlike other rapacious birds," says Nuttall, " the ospreys may be almost considered gregari- 
