Plate XXXIX. 
Fig. 1. PANDIOIJ HAUAETUS CARO LINENS 18-Fish Hawk. 
The Fish Hawk, or American Osprey, is an irregular spring and fall migrant throughout the state. 
They are generally seen in pairs, but in the fall, occasionally in families. A few that enter the state in 
the spring do not go beyond its borders to breed, being induced to remain by the good fishing afforded 
in the lakes and large rivers. 
LOCALITY: 
The nest is placed always in a tree near the supply of food; and, as fish constitute the sole diet 
of this species, it is usually found near some considerable body of water. Along the shore of Lake 
Erie pines and oaks furnish the usual sites, but the sycamore and other hard-wood trees are occupied 
about reservoirs and rivers. 
POSITION: 
Dr. Brewer, in “Xorth American Birds,” says the nest is always built in the top of a tree. Some- 
times it is many feet above ground, and sometimes it is in a small tree not more than twenty or thirty 
feet high. 
MATERIALS : 
The nest is made entirely of sticks. These are gathered from the ground, and are as large and 
clumsy as the bird can manage. They are interwoven into a strong platform about three feet in diameter, 
and the first season about two or three feet thick. The same nest is occupied for a series of years, and 
each season a new lot of sticks is piled upon the old structure until in time it becomes five or six feet 
in height. 
EGGS: 
The number of eggs in a set varies from two to three. The ground-color of the shell is creamy 
white. The markings consist of large blotches, spots, and speckles, varying in different specimens from 
a wine-red to purplish-brown, but usually a tolerably pure brown-madder. The deep shell-marks vary 
from a faint blue-gray to smoky-brown, according to the depth of the color beneath the surface. 
Ho particular pattern can be described as usual among eggs so variable. Sometimes the shell is 
entirely washed with brown, and sometimes there are but few spots upon it. The color of the markings 
is the only thing of any uniformity about them. They measure in long-diameter from 2.20 to 2.60, and 
in short-diameter from 1.75 to 1.90. A common size is 2.35 x 1.80. 
DIFFERENTIAL POINTS : 
There is no other nest and eggs with which this is at all likely to be confounded. 
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