54 
FISII-IIAWK, OR OSPREY. 
that tie appears fixed in air, flapping his wings. The oltject however 
he abandons, or rather the fish he had in his eye has disappeared, 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 Avithout 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 rushing sound, and Avitli the certainty of a rifle. In a few 
moments he emerges, bearing in his claws his struggling prey, which he 
always carries head foremost ; and having risen a few feet above the 
surface, shakes himself as a water spaniel would do, and directs his 
heav}' and laliorious course directly for the land. If the Avind 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 wind- 
ward, not in a direct line, that is, in the wind's eye, but making several 
successive tacks to gain his purpose. This will appear the more strik- 
ing, when Are consider the size of the fish which he sometimes bears 
along. A shad was taken from a Fish-Hawk, near Great Egg Harbor, 
on Avhicli he had begun to regale himself, and had already ate a con- 
siderable portion of it, the remainder Aveighed six pounds. Another 
Fish-HaAA^k was passing Mr. Beasley's, at the same place, Avith a large 
flounder in his grasp, Avhich struggled and shook him so, that he droped 
it on the shore. The flounder Avas picked up, and served the whole 
family for dinner. It is singular that the Hawk never descends to pick 
up a fish Avliich he happens to drop, either on the land or on the Avater. 
There is a kind of abstemious dignity in this habit of the HaAvk, supe- 
rior to the gluttonous voracity displayed by most other birds of prey, 
particularly by the Bald Eagle, whose piratical robberies committed on 
the present species have been already fully detailed in treating of his 
history. The HaAvk, however, in his fishing pursuits, sometimes mistakes 
his mark, or overrates his strength, by striking fish too large and poAverful 
for him to manage, by Avhom 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 stur- 
geon, and several other large fish, Avith that of the Fish-HaAA'k fast 
grappled in them, have at difi"erent times been found dead on the shore, 
cast up by the Avaves. 
The Fish-HaAA'k is doubtless the most numerous of all its genus within 
the United States. It penetrates far into the interior of the country 
