FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY. 
103 
bird. Why there are but two young in a season, is easily 
explained. Nature has been studiously parsimonious of her 
physical strength, from whence the tribes of animals incapable 
to resist, derive security and confidence.” 
The Eagle is said to live to a great age,— -sixty, eighty, 
and, as some assert, one hundred years. This circumstance is 
remarkable, when we consider the seeming intemperate habits 
of the bird. Sometimes fasting, through necessity, for several 
days, and at other times gorging itself with animal food till its 
craw swells out the plumage of that part, forming a large 
protuberance on the breast. This, however, is its natural 
food, and for these habits its whole organization is particularly 
adapted. It has not, like men, invented rich wines, ardent 
spirits, and a thousand artificial poisons, in the form of soups, 
sauces, and sweetmeats. Its food is simple, it indulges freely, 
uses great exercise, breathes the purest air, is healthy, vigorous, 
and long lived. The lords of the creation themselves might 
derive some useful hints from these facts, were they not 
already, in general, too wise, or too proud, to learn from their 
inferiors , the fowls of the air and beasts of the field. 
FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY FALCO HALKETUS. 
Plate XXXVII. Fig. 1. 
Carolina Osprey, Lath. Syn . i. p. 46. — 26. a Falco piscator, Briss. i. p. 361. 14. 
362. 15. — Faucon Pecheur dela Caroline, Buff. i. p. 142 Fishing Hawk, Catesby, 
Car. i. p. 2. — Turt. Syst. i. 149 — Beale's Museum , No. 144. 
P AND ION HALIMETUS. — Savigny.* 
Le Balbuzarrl, Cuv. Regn. Anim. i. p. 316 — Aigle Balbuzard, Temm. Man. i. p. 47. 
— Balbusardus halisetus, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 51 — Osprey, Falco haliaeetus, Selby , 
Rlust. Br. Ornith. i. p. 12, pi. 4. — Falco halisetus, (sub-gen. Bandion ,) Bonap. 
Synop. p. 26 — The Fish Hawk, or Osprey, Aud. pi. 81. male; Orn. Biog. i. 
415 — Aquila ( Bandion ) haliseeta, North. Zool. ii. p. 20. 
This formidable, vigorous-winged, and well known bird, 
subsists altogether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, 
creeks, and rivers; procuring his prey by his own active skill 
* This is the type of another aquatic group, and a real fisher. It does not, 
like the White-headed Eagle, though fond of fish, subsist only upon the 
