A FEATHERED FISHERMAN
THE OSPREY
Before the day was over the children were so in love with Olaf--with the
beach where crabs were living, with the sea over which water birds were
soaring--and wished to know so many things, that the Doctor told them
the only way to satisfy them would be to camp on the shore in August,
when the water would be warm enough for bathing; for to answer all the
questions they asked would take a month.
"And then you can tell us another bookful about water and fish, and
crabs and sky," said Dodo. "So we shall have a bird book, and a
butterfly book, and Olive's flower book!"
"Yes, and a beast book, too!" said Nat, "about coons and bears, and
squirrels and foxes, you know! Rap has seen foxes right on our Farm!"
"I wish I knew something about the stars--and the rocks too," said Rap
very earnestly. "Was this earth ever young, Doctor?"
"Yes, my boy, everything that Heart of Nature guides had a beginning and
was once young."
"What is that? An Eagle?" cried Dodo suddenly, pointing up to a very
large bird, with a white breast and brown-barred tail, who flew over
the bay and dived into the water.
[Illustration: Osprey.]
"It's the Fisherman Bird," said Olaf. "Some call it the Fish Hawk and
others the Osprey. They say it lives all over North America, but it goes
far south in winter, and when it conies back in spring we know the fish
are running again; for it lives on the fish it catches, and won't come
until they are plenty."
"How does it catch fish?" asked Dodo.
"It hovers overhead until it sees, with its sharp eye, a fish ripple the
water; then it pounces down like a flash, and grabs the fish with, its
long claws, that are made like grappling-irons. If the fish is small the
Osprey carries it home easily; but if it is a big one there may be a
fight. Sometimes, if the Osprey's claws get caught in a fish too large
to fly away with, the Fisherman Bird is dragged under water and
drowned."
"Do they still nest on Round Island?" asked the Doctor. "There were a
dozen pairs of them there when I was a boy."
"Yes, sir! But there is only one pair now. It's a great rack of sticks,
half as big as a haystack; for they mend it every season, and so it
keeps growing until now it is almost ready to fall out of the old tree
that holds it. And, do you know, sir, that Purple Grackles have stuck
their own nests into the sides of it, until it is as full of birds as a
great summer hotel is of people."
"Oh, we must see it!" said Olive, who had finished putting her seaweeds
to press; "for as yet I have only read about such a nest."
"What does the Osprey look like near to?" asked Rap.
"Like a large Hawk," answered the Doctor. "You would know him to be a
Hawk by his hooked beak and claws. He walks in the procession of bird
families along with the cannibal birds among whom he belongs, and who
come after the Birds that only Croak and Call. But he is not a real
cannibal, because he lives on fish, and never eats birds. So I will give
you a description of him now."
The Osprey
Length about two feet.
Upper parts dark brown with some white on the head and neck.
Under parts white with some dark spots.
Feet very large and scaly, with long sharp claws, to hold the slippery
fishes he catches.
A Citizen of North America.
A very industrious fisherman who minds his own business and does nobody
any harm.