. New England bird life: being a manual of New England ornithology; . animals is the same as the Kingfishers, by plung-ing down from on high, but the quarry is seized withthe talons, of course, not with the beak. The piscatorialhabits of this bird restrict its residence to the coast andthe larger inland waters. Its numbers are uncertain indifferent localities to all appearance equally eligible, andin some places appear to have diminished of late yearsfrom some unassignable cause. Speaking of Massachu-setts, Mr. Allen has lately said that the Fish Hawkformerly bred in the State, but now probabl
. New England bird life: being a manual of New England ornithology; . animals is the same as the Kingfishers, by plung-ing down from on high, but the quarry is seized withthe talons, of course, not with the beak. The piscatorialhabits of this bird restrict its residence to the coast andthe larger inland waters. Its numbers are uncertain indifferent localities to all appearance equally eligible, andin some places appear to have diminished of late yearsfrom some unassignable cause. Speaking of Massachu-setts, Mr. Allen has lately said that the Fish Hawkformerly bred in the State, but now probably neststhere very rarely if at all; and Mr. Minots remarks onthe subject are to like effect. Our advices from Con-necticut are the most explicit and interesting of any wepossess. Mr. W. W. Coe informs me, writes Mr. PANDION HALIAETUS : OSPREY ! FISH HAWK. 129 Merriam, that Fish Hawks do not breed so far up theConnecticut River as Middletown and Portland, but arecommon at its mouth (about Saybrook), and that hehas taken their nests, along the Sound, all the way from. Fig. 25.—Fish Hawk. Saybrook to New London. Immense numbers of thembreed regularly at Plumb Island, Conn., where I saw,last Spring, at least five hundred nests, and over athousand birds. There is only one small piece of timberon the island, and every tree contains a Fish-Hawksnest, or from eight to ten Night Herons nests. There 130 FALCONIDyE : HAWKS. is quite a colony of Night Herons there. There beingnot trees enough for the Hawks to nest in, many of thembuild on the ground, and some lay their eggs in thesand. They occupy the same nest for years, adding alittle to it each season, till some of them, that wereoriginally placed flat on the ground, had become so largethat I could not look into them; they were seven feethigh and measured six or eight feet across the top! Onthe 4th of June I found both young birds and fresh eggsin some of the nests. The Crow Blackbirds had builttheir nests in among the large sticks of
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