FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY. 
113 
suddenly dragged under ; and, though he sometimes succeeds 
in extricating himself, after being taken three or four times 
down, yet oftener both parties perish. The bodies of sturgeon, 
and several other large fish, with that of a Fish Hawk fast 
grappled in them, have, at different times, been found dead 
on the shore, cast up by the waves. 
The Fish Hawk is. doubtless the most numerous of all its 
genus within the United States. It penetrates far into the 
interior of the country up our large rivers, and their head 
waters. It may be said to line the sea-coast from Georgia to 
Canada. In some parts I have counted, at one view, more 
than twenty of their nests within half a mile. Mr Gardiner 
informs me, that, on the small island on which he resides, 
there are at least <£ three hundred nests of Fish Hawks that 
have young, which, on an average, consume probably not less 
than six hundred fish daily.” Before they depart in the 
autumn, they regularly repair their nests, carrying up sticks, 
sods, &c. fortifying them against the violence of the winter 
storms, which, from this circumstance, they would seem to 
foresee and expect. But, notwithstanding all their precautions, 
they frequently, on their return in spring, find them lying in 
ruins around the roots of the tree ; and sometimes the tree 
itself has shared the same fate. When a number of Hawks, 
to the amount of twenty or upwards, collect together on one 
tree, making a loud squeeling noise, there is generally a nest 
built soon after on the same tree. Probably this congressional 
assembly were settling the right of the new pair to the pre- 
mises ; or it might be a kind of wedding, or joyous festive 
meeting on the occasion. They are naturally of a mild and 
peaceable disposition, living together in great peace and 
harmony; for though with them, as in the best regulated 
communities, instances of attack and robbery occur among 
themselves, yet these instances are extremely rare. Mr 
Gardiner observes, that they are sometimes seen high in the 
air, sailing and cutting strange gambols, with loud vociferations, 
darting down several hundred feet perpendicular, frequently 
VOL. II. 
H 
