FISHING HAWK 
Michelet descants in L’Ozseau, the fact that the gape of 
the mouth reaches, but does not pass, the eye, and the 
slight webbing between the outer front toes. The osprey 
has not the latter character, which, as well as a few 
others, produces a certain likeness to the owl tribe, 
which are known to be not nearly related to the hawk 
tribe. On account of these few facts, Pandion haliaetus, 
the osprey, has been given a separate place in the 
Accipitrine phalanx, which however it hardly deserves. 
A glance at the living bird, which is frequently to be 
found at the Zoo, will show this. It is unmistakably 
and thoroughly a hawk. The long-legged caracaras, 
and still more perhaps the less known Polyboroides of 
Africa, have a suggestion of the secretary bird, which is 
unquestionably an “‘ aberrant’? hawk. They may remind 
the visitor, too, of quite a distinct form, the cariama, 
which ornithologists now hold to be not far off from 
the cranes, by their habit of throwing back the neck 
when uttering their prolonged cry. But the remaining 
assemblage can only with difficulty be split up into 
“families,” and even the carrion-loving ways of the 
vulture are successfully imitated by that “noble”’ bird 
the golden eagle, who will stoop readily from sailing 
with supreme dominion through the azure deep of air 
to settle upon a festering sheep’s carcass. The osprey 
seems to be free from this ghoulish taste. This fish 
hawk, as it is often called, is world wide in range; it 
extends much farther than from China to Peru, viz. 
from Japan to Brazil, and from Alaska to New Zealand. 
It catches fish in the sea or in lakes; with us it is a 
rarity, though it has been ascertained to breed here, 
or rather in Scotland. And very rightly, as evidence of 
the proper importance to be attached to the matter, the 
Zoological Society awarded some years back a medal 
to certain gentlemen who had been instrumental in 
cherishing the nests and home of the osprey. 
Z.G. 193 O 
