FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY. 
73 
inherit the spirit of his predecessor, for like a true step-father, 
he left the nest at my approach, and sailed about at a safe dis- 
tance with his mate, who showed great anxiety and distress du- 
ring the whole of my visit. It is universally asserted by the 
people of the neighbourhood where these birds breed, that the 
young remain so long, before they fly, that the parents are 
obliged at last to compel them to shift for themselves, beating 
them with their wings, and driving them from the nest. But 
that they continue to assist them even after this, I know to be a 
fact from my own observation, as I have seen the young bird 
meet its parent in the air, and receive from him the fish he 
carried in his claws. 
The flight of the Fish-Hawk, his manoeuvres while in search 
of fish, and his manner of seizing his prey, are deserving of 
particular notice. In leaving the nest he usually flies direct till 
he comes to the sea, then sails around in easy curving lines, 
turning sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently without 
the least exertion, rarely moving the wings, his legs extended 
in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length and curva- 
ture or bend of wing, distinguishing him from all other Hawks. 
The height at which he thus elegantly glides is various, from 
one hundred to one hundred and fifty, and two hundred feet, 
sometimes much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitring the 
face of the deep below. Suddenly he is seen to check his course, 
as if struck by a particular object, which he seems to survey 
for a few moments with such steadiness that he appears fixed 
in air, flapping his wings. This object 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 reach- 
es the surface, shoots ofif 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 without 
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 
VOL. 1. — M m 
