THE FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY. 
05 
in numbers, both during spring, when it shews itself along our Atlantic 
shores, lakes, and rivers, and during autumn, when it retires to warmer 
climes. At these seasons, it appears in flocks of eight or ten individuals, 
following the windings of our shores in loose bodies, advancing in easy 
sailings or flappings, crossing each other in their gyrations. During the 
period of their stay in the United States, many pairs are seen nestling, 
rearing their young, and seeking their food within so short a distance of each 
other, that while following the margins of our eastern shores, a Pish Hawk, 
or a nest belonging to the species, may be met with at every short interval. 
The Fish Hawk may be said to be of a mild disposition. Not only do 
these birds live in perfect harmony together, but they even allow other birds 
of very different character to approach so near to them as to build their nests 
of the very materials of which the outer parts of their own are constructed. 
I have never observed a Fish Hawk chasing any other bird whatever. So 
pacific and timorous is it, that, rather than encounter a foe but little more 
powerful than itself, it abandons its prey to the White-headed Eagle, which, 
next to man, is its greatest enemy. It never forces its young from the nest, 
as some othex*' Hawks do, but, on the contrai’y, is seen to feed them even 
when they have begun to procure food for themselves. 
Notwithstanding all these facts, a most erroneous idea prevails among our 
fishermen, and the farmers along our coasts, that the Fish Hawk’s nest is 
the best scare-crow they can Have in the vicinity of their houses or grounds. 
As these good people affirm, no Hawk will attempt to commit depredations 
on their poulti'y, so long as the Fish Hawk remains in the country. But 
the absence of most birds of prey from those parts at the time when the Fish 
Hawk is on our coast, arises simply from the necessity of retiring to the 
more sequestered parts of the interior for the purpose of rearing their young 
in security, and the circumstance of their visiting the coasts chiefly at the 
period when myriads of watei'-fowl resort to our estuaries at the approach of 
winter, leaving the shores and salt-marshes at the return of spring, when the 
Fish Hawk arrives. However, as this notion has a tendency to protect the 
latter, it may be so far useful, the fisherman always interposing when he sees 
a person bent upon the destruction of his favourite bird. 
The Fish Hawk differs from all birds of prey in another important par- 
ticular, which is, that it never attempts to secure its prey in the air, although 
its rapidity of flight might induce an observer to suppose it perfectly able to 
do so. I have spent weeks on the Gulf of Mexico, where these birds are 
numerous, and have observed them sailing and plunging into the water, at a 
time when numerous shoals of flying fish were emerging from the sea to 
evade the pursuit of the dolphins. Yet the Fish Hawk never attempted to 
pursue any of them while above the surface, but would plunge after one of 
Vol. I. 10 
