68 
FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY. 
to render this no difficult matter. But they no sooner arrive, 
than they wage war on the Bald Eagles, as against a horde of 
robbers and banditti; sometimes succeeding, by force of num- 
bers and perseverance, in driving them from their haunts; but 
seldom or never attacking them in single combat. 
The first appearance of the Fish-Hawk in spring, is welcom- 
ed by the fishermen, as the happy signal of the approach of 
those vast shoals of herring, shad, &c. &c. , that regularly arrive 
on our coasts, and enter our rivers in such prodigious multi- 
tudes. Two of a trade, it is said, seldom agree; the adage, 
however, will not hold good in the present case, for such is the 
respect paid the Fish-hawk not only by this class of men, but 
generally, by the whole neighbourhood where it resides, that 
a person who should attempt to shoot one of them, would stand 
a fair chance of being insulted. This prepossession in favour 
of the Fish-hawk is honourable to their feelings. They asso- 
ciate with its first appearance ideas of plenty, and all the gaiety 
of business; they see it active and industrious like themselves; 
inoffensive to the productions of their farms; building with con- 
fidence, and without the least disposition to concealment, in 
the middle of their fields, and along their fences; and returning 
year after year regularly to its former abode. 
The nest of the Fish-Hawk is usually built on the top of a 
dead or decaying tree, sometimes not more than fifteen, often 
upwards of fifty feet, from the ground. It has been remarked 
by the people of the seacoasts, that the most thriving tree will 
die in a few years, after being taken possession of by the Fish- 
Hawk. This is attributed to the fish-oil, and to the excrements 
of the bird ; but is more probably occasioned by the large heap 
of wet, salt materials, of which it is usually composed. In my 
late excursions to the seashore I ascended to several of these 
nests, that had been built in from year to year, and found them 
constructed as follows: externally large sticks, from half an 
inch to an inch and a half in diameter, and two or three feet in 
length, piled to the height of four or five feet, and from two to 
three feet in breadth; these were intermixed with corn-stalks. 
