38 FALCO IIAHiETUS. 
it feeds on chickens, birds, hares, and other animals. I* 1 
is also said to catch fish during’ the night ; and that th® | 
noise of its |)lunging into the water is heard at a gre® 
distance. But, in the descriptions of these writers, tl'l* 
bird has been so frequently confounded with the ospreft 
as to leave little doubt that the habits and mannei’S ® 
the one have been often attributed to both ; and othct^ 
added that are common to neither. 
SUBGESUS III. FAKDION, SA VIGNY. 
6. FALCO IIALIASTUS, LINN. FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY, WILSON- 
WILSON, PL. X.YXVII. FIG. 1 
-EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM' 
This formidalile, vigorous-winged, and ’B'ell knoM'f 
bird, subsists altogetlier on the finny tribes that swai®® 
in our hays, creeks, and rivers ; procuring his prey W 
his own active skill and industry; and seemiug 
farther de])endent on the laud than as a mere resti®? 
place, or, in the usual season, a spot of deposit I*’ 
his nest, eggs, and young. 
The ii.sh-hawk is migratory, arriving on the co®*'^ 
of New York and New .Jersey about the twenty-first 
March, and retiring to the south about the twciitJ 
second of September. Heavy equinoctial storms 
varj' these periods of arrival and departure a few <1®!* J 
hut long observation has ascertained, that they are 
with remarkable regularity. On the arrival of th®' 
birds in the northern parts of the United States, 
March, they sometimes find the bays and ponds fr®^*^ J 
and experience a difficulty in procuring fish for 
days. Yet there is no iivstance on record 
attacking birds, or inferior land animals, with in*^ 
* It is also a European species. 
