. Birds and nature in natural colors : being a scientific and popular treatise on four hundred birds of the United States and Canada . y are, however, cruelly persecuted in manysections of the country, and have been almost exterminated in this state; but tomy mind it is a mighty mean sportsman who will begrudge a poor bird thetaking of a few fish by methods not less sportsmanlike than his own. The Osprey feeds exclusively upon fish and covers long stretches of waterin its tireless search. It flies along at a height of fifty or a hundred feet abovethe water, and when its finny prey is sighted,
. Birds and nature in natural colors : being a scientific and popular treatise on four hundred birds of the United States and Canada . y are, however, cruelly persecuted in manysections of the country, and have been almost exterminated in this state; but tomy mind it is a mighty mean sportsman who will begrudge a poor bird thetaking of a few fish by methods not less sportsmanlike than his own. The Osprey feeds exclusively upon fish and covers long stretches of waterin its tireless search. It flies along at a height of fifty or a hundred feet abovethe water, and when its finny prey is sighted, pauses for a moment on hoveringwings, then drops with a resounding splash, often quite disappearing beneaththe water, but rising again quickly with a fish firmly secured in its bird upon rising immediately adjusts the catch, placing it head foremostso that it will offer the resistance to the air in flight. Not infrequentlythe Hawk secures a fish which it is barely able to handle, and occasionally itstrikes one so large that it is drawn under and drowned before it can disengageits claws. 484 -V - v ■u ^<^--. 71 AMERICAN OSPREY. (Pandion haliaetus carolinesis). ^3 Life-size. HO, CHICAGO Besides providing for a hungry family at home, this hard-working birdis purveyor in ordinary to His Majesty, the Bald Eagle, and upon the sug-gestion of the latter bird meekly drops its catch only to see it eagerly snatchedin midair by the lazy tyrant. Pitifully screaming he turns back to the wearychase, for he must not go home empty-handed. The nest, a huge aggregation of sticks and trash, is placed normally nearthe waters edge upon the cliiTs or upon rocks projecting in mid-stream orelse high in a neighboring tree. Persecution, however, will drive it to thedeep woods miles from its fishing grounds. A typical nest, found on thebanks of the Columbia River, is placed twenty-five feet high in a stout pinetree. It is flat on top, three feet across, but seven feet in depth, the
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirdsnorthamerica
