.

"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.

CHAPTER XX

SOME SKY SWEEPERS

About four o'clock, after a long rest, the party started for home,
because they wanted to have plenty of time to stop in the wood lane on
the way.

The first bird that Nat spied after they left the meadows was perching
on the topmost wire of a fence by the roadside. Every once in a while he
darted into the air, snapped up an insect, and returned to the same
perch on the wire whence he had started. He was a very smart-looking
bird, with a flaming crest that he raised and lowered to suit himself;
and every time he flew into the air he cried "Ky