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BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
Subfamily PANDIONINAI. Ospreys. 
Genus PANDION Savigny. 
Pandion haliaetus carolinensis (Gmel.). 
American Osprey ; Fish Hawk. 
Description {Plate 80). 
Wings long and pointed; second and third quills longest. Three lirst primaries 
emarginate on inner webs; bill stout with a very long hook and sharp end ; feathers 
oily to resist water, those of head lengthened and pointed ; thighs and little of the 
front parts of tarsi are covered with short feathers which lie close ; legs, tarsi, 
and feet very strong and robust; claws all same length, very large and sharp. The 
tarsus all round covered with rough scales; toes padded below and covered with 
numerous hard-pointed projections to aid in holding their slippery prey. 
Adult. —Upper parts dark brown or grayish-brown; most of bead, neck and 
under parts white (chest in female, and sometimes in male, is spotted with brown,) 
the tail, usually paler than the back, is tipped with white, and has six or seven 
dusky bars. The young, very similar to adults, have upper parts spotted with pale 
reddish-brown or white. Iris in some specimens reddish, but mostly yellow ; bill 
and claws blue-black; tarsi and toes grayish-blue. Length (female) about 25 
inches ; extent about 52. 
Habitat —North America, from Hudson’s bay and Alaska south to the West Indies 
and northern South America. 
The Fish Hawk, although most numerous about the sea coast, is quite 
frequently met with along our large rivers. This bird arrives in Penn¬ 
sylvania generally about the last week in March, and remains some¬ 
times as late as the first of November. Although the Fish Hawk com¬ 
monly rears its young along the sea coast, it is frequently found breed¬ 
ing near the borders of large rivers or in the vicinity of large inland 
lakes. The nest, a particularly bulky structure (from four to eight feet in 
diameter), composed chiefly of sticks, and lined with sea-weeds, grasses, 
etc., is built usually on a large tree, near the water. In Florida I have 
found eggs and young of this bird early in March. The Fish Hawk 
breeds in Pennsylvania. I am informed that about eight years ago 
Messrs. William Ingram and Joseph Price, of West Chester, Pa., dis¬ 
covered a nest and young of the Fish Hawk along the Brandywine 
creek, in the vicinity of Chadd’s Ford, Delaware county. The eggs, two 
or three in number, measure about inches in length by If inches in 
width; they are yellowish-white, thickly covered with large blotches of 
different shades of brown. Although it is asserted by certain reputable 
writers that during the breeding season these birds subsist in part on 
reptiles and batrachians, I believe that such food is only taken when 
they are unable to secure fish, which they are so expert in catching. In 
the stomachs of eighteen Fish Hawks, killed in Pennsylvania, New Jer¬ 
sey, Maryland and Florida, I found only the remains of fishes. 
The following list shows that the osprey breeds more or less regu¬ 
larly in different localities in Pennsylvania in the vicinity of large 
