FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY. 
39 
to feed on them ; though their great strength of flight, 
as well as of feet and claws, would seem 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 numbers 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 
welcomed by the fishermen, as the happy signal of the 
approach of those vast shoals of herring, shad, &c. 
that regularly arrive on our coasts, and enter our rivers 
in such prodigious multitudes. Two of a trade, it is 
said, sehlom 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-haw k is honourable 
to their feelings. They associate, with its first appear- 
ance, 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 confidence, 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-haw k 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 sea coasts, 
that the most thriving tree w ill die in a few years after 
being taken possession of by the fisli-hawdi. This is 
attributed to the fish-oil, and to the excrements of the 
brd; but is more probably occasioned by the large 
heap of wet salt materials of which the nest is usually 
composed. In my late excursions to the sea shore, I 
ascended to several of these nests that had been built 
