months, are the constant robbers and plunderers of the osprey, or fish-hawk, by whose industry alone both are usually fed. Nor that, “ though famished for want of prey, he disdains to feed on carrion," since we have ourselves seen the bald eagle, while seated on the dead carcass of a horse, keep a whole flock of vultures at a respectful distance, until he had fully sated his own appetite. The Count has also taken great pains to expose the ridiculous opinion of Pliny, who conceived that the ospreys formed no separate race, and that they proceeded from the intermixture of different species of eagles, the young of which were not ospreys, only sea eagles; "which sea eagles," says he, " breed small vultures, which engender great vultures, that have not the power of propagation." But, while labouring to confute these absurdities, the Count himself, in his belief of an occasional intercourse between the osprey and the sea eagle, contradicts all actual observation, and one of the most common and fixed laws of nature; for it may be safely asserted, that there is no habit more universal among the feathered race, in their natural state, than that chastity of attachment, which confines the amours of individuals to those of their own species only. That perversion of nature, produced by domestication, is nothing to the purpose. In no instance have I ever observed the slightest appearance of a contrary conduct. Even in those birds which never build a nest for themselves, nor hatch their young, nor even pair, but live in a state of general concubinage, such as the cuckoo of the old, and the cow bunting of the new continent,— there is no instance of a deviation from this striking habit. I cannot, therefore, avoid considering the opinion above alluded to, that "the male osprey, by coupling with the female sea eagle, produces sea eagles; and that the female osprey, by pairing with the male sea eagle, gives birth to ospreys," or fish-hawks, as altogether unsupported by facts, and contradicted by the

* Hist. Nat. lib. x, c. 3.
† Buffon, vol. I. p. 80, Trans.

constant and universal habits of the whole feathered race, in their state of nature.

The sea eagle is said, by Salerne, to build, on the loftiest oaks, a very broad nest, into which it drops two large eggs, that are quite round, exceedingly heavy, and of a dirty white colour. Of the precise time of building, we have no account; but something may be deduced from the following circumstance: In the month of

May, while on a shooting excursion along the sea coast, not far from Great Egg Harbour, accompanied by my friend Mr Ord, we were conducted about a mile into the woods to see an eagle's nest. On approaching within a short distance of the place, the bird was perceived slowly retreating from the nest, which, we found, occupied the centre of the top of a very large yellow pine. The woods were cut down, and cleared off, for several rods around the spot, which, from this circumstance, and the stately, erect trunk, and large crooked, wriggling branches of the tree, surmounted by a black mass of sticks and brush, had a very singular and picturesque effect. Our conductor had brought an axe with him, to cut down the tree; but my companion, anxious to save the eggs, or young, insisted on ascending to the nest, which he fearlessly performed, while we stationed ourselves below, ready to defend him, in case of an attack from the old eagles. No opposition, however, was offered; and, on reaching the nest, it was found, to our disappointment, empty. It was built of large sticks, some of them several feet in length; within which lay sods of earth, sedge, grass, dry reeds, &c. piled to the height of five or six feet, by more than four in breadth. It was well lined with fresh pine tops, and had little or no concavity. Under this lining lay the recent exuviæ of the young of the present year, such as scales of the quill feathers, down, &c. Our guide had passed this place late in February, at which time both male and female were making a great noise about the nest; and, from what we afterwards learnt, it is highly probable it contained young, even at that early time of the season,

I

A few miles from this, is another eagle's nest, built also on a pine tree, which, from the information received from the proprietor of the woods, had been long the residence of this family of eagles. The tree on which the nest was originally built, had been, for time immemorial, or at least ever since he remembered, inhabited by these eagles. Some of his sons cut down this tree to procure the young, which were two in number; and the eagles, soon after, commenced building another nest, on the very next adjoining tree, thus exhibiting a very particular attachment to the spot. The eagles, he says, make it a kind of home and lodging place, in all seasons. This man asserts, that the gray, or sea eagles, are the young of the bald eagle, and that they are several years old before they begin to breed. It does not drive its young from the nest like the osprey, or fish-hawk, but continues to feed them long after they leave it.

The specimen from which this description was taken measured three feet in length and upwards of seven feet in extent. The bill was formed exactly like that of the bald eagle, but of a dusky brown colour; cere and legs, bright yellow; the latter, as in the bald eagle, feathered a little below the knee; irides, a bright straw colour; head above, neck and back, streaked with light brown, deep brown, and white, the plumage being white, tipt and centered with brown; scapulars, brown; lesser wing-coverts, very pale, intermixed with white; primaries, black, their shafts brownish white; rump, pale brownish white; tail, rounded, somewhat longer than the wings, when shut, brown on the exterior vanes, the inner ones white, sprinkled with dirty brown; throat, breast, and belly, white, dashed and streaked with different tints of brown and pale yellow; vent, brown, tipt with white; femorals, dark brown, tipt with lighter; auriculars, brown, forming a bar from below the eye backwards; plumage of the neck, long, narrow, and pointed, as is usual with eagles, and of a brownish colour, tipt with white.

The sea eagle is said, by various authors, to hunt at night, as well as during the day, and that, besides fish,

it feeds on chickens, birds, hares, and other animals. It is also said to catch fish during the night; and that the noise of its plunging into the water is heard at a great distance. But, in the descriptions of these writers, this bird has been so frequently confounded with the osprey, as to leave little doubt that the habits and manners of the one have been often attributed to both; and others added that are common to neither.

SUBGENUS III.-PANDION, SAVIGNY.

6. FALCO HALIÆTUS, LINN.-FISH-HAWK, OR OSPREY, WILSON.

WILSON, PL. XXXVII. FIG. 1.—EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM.

THIS formidable, vigorous-winged, and well known bird, subsists altogether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, creeks, and rivers; procuring his prey by his own active skill and industry; and seeming no farther dependent on the land than as a mere resting place, or, in the usual season, a spot of deposit for his nest, eggs, and young.

The fish-hawk is migratory, arriving on the coasts of New York and New Jersey about the twenty-first of March, and retiring to the south about the twentysecond of September. Heavy equinoctial storms may vary these periods of arrival and departure a few days; but long observation has ascertained, that they are kept with remarkable regularity. On the arrival of these birds in the northern parts of the United States, in March, they sometimes find the bays and ponds frozen, and experience a difficulty in procuring fish for many days. Yet there is no instance on record of their attacking birds, or inferior land animals, with intent

It is also a European species.

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, seldom 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-hawk is honourable to their feelings. They associate, with its first appearance, 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-hawk 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 will die in a few years after being taken possession of by the fish-hawk. This is attributed to the fish-oil, and to the excrements of the bird; 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