Our Birds of Prey. 161 
also is grey, not white, and is numerously banded with 
black. 
The last on the list is the common osprey (Pandion 
haliaetus), which is known commonly here by the name 
" fish hawk." They are said to be common all along the 
low and water savannahs of the coast, but I have met 
with them only along the Abary creek, where, especially 
in the wet season when the country is flooded by 
some three or four feet of water, these hawks are 
met with all over the district, sailing along with rapid 
flight, or hovering, almost quite stationary, for a moment, 
and then darting, as though shot downwards into the 
water, to seize some fish that they have espied. Com- 
paratively large fishes are thus seized by the birds, which 
seldom, if ever, miss the prey at which they have darted. 
I have never observed them perching in the day, but one 
was once shot while perching at night on the top of a 
tall dead branch that projected high up in the air, imme- 
diately over the rough benab in which we had camped on 
Tiger Island, along the Abary Creek. 
The species will be recognised by many characters. 
It is about 24 inches in length, and of a pale brown 
colour throughout the upper surface, the feathers being 
^ margined with paler whitish brown, those on the head 
I becoming white, though streaked with brown at all ages. 
, The main quills of the wings are black, and they reach be- 
yond the end of the tail, which is numerously barred with 
lighter brown. The under surface is white, the fore-breast 
u being more or less blotched with brown. The tarsus is 
short and covered with very small rough scales, of a pale 
blue, the joint being less than half the length of the 
upper bone (tibia) ; the toes are pale blue above, covered 
U 
