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OSPREY, or OSPRAY

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 353 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OSPREY, or OSPRAY , a word said to be corrupted from " Ossifrage," See also:Lat. ossifraga, See also:bone-breaker. The Ossifraga of See also:Pliny (H.N. x. 3) and some other classical writers seems to have XX. I2been the See also:Lammergeyer (q.v.); but the name, not inapplicable in that See also:case, has been transferred to another See also:bird which is no breaker of bones, See also:save incidentally those of the fishes it devours.1 The osprey is a rapacious bird; of middling See also:size and of conspicuously-marked plumage, the See also:white of its See also:lower parts, and often of its See also:head, contrasting sharply with the dark See also:brown of the back and most of its upper parts when the bird is seen on the wing. It is the Falco haliaelus of See also:Linnaeus, but was, in 181o, established by J. C. See also:Savigny (Ois. de l'Egypte, p. 35) as the type of a new genus Pandion. It is closely related to the See also:family Falconidae, but is the representative of a See also:separate family, Pandionidae. Pandion differs from the Falconidae not only pterylologically, as observed by C. L. See also:Nitzsch, but also osteologically, as pointed out by A.

Milne-See also:

Edwards (Ois. See also:foss. See also:France, ii. pp. 413, 419). In some of the characters in which it differs structurally from the Falconidae, it agrees with certain of the owls; but the most important parts of its See also:internal structure, as well as of its pterylosis, forbid a belief that there is any near See also:alliance of the two See also:groups. The See also:special characters of the family are the presence of a reversible See also:outer toe, the See also:absence of an aftershaft and the feathering of the tibiae. The osprey is one of the most See also:cosmopolitan birds-of-See also:prey. From See also:Alaska to See also:Brazil, from See also:Lapland to See also:Natal, from See also:Japan to See also:Tasmania, and in some of the islands of the Pacific, it occurs as a See also:winter-visitant or as a See also:resident. Though migratory in See also:Europe at least, it is generally See also:independent of See also:climate. It breeds equally on the See also:half-thawed shores of See also:Hudson's See also:Bay and on the cays of See also:Honduras, in the dense forests of See also:Finland and on the barren rocks of the Red See also:Sea, in See also:Kamchatka and in See also:West See also:Australia. Among the countries it does not frequent are See also:Iceland and New See also:Zealand. Where, through abundance of See also:food, it is numerous—as in former days was the case in the eastern See also:part of the See also:United States—the nests of the See also:fish-See also:hawk (to use its See also:American name) may be placed on trees to the number of three See also:hundred See also:close together. Where food is scarcer and the See also:species accordingly less plentiful, a single pair will occupy an isolated See also:rock, and jealously expel all intruders of their See also:kind, as happens in See also:Scotland .2 Few birds See also:lay eggs so beautiful or so See also:rich in colouring: their white or See also:pale ground is spotted, blotched or marbled with almost every shade of See also:purple, See also:orange and red—passing from the most delicate See also:lilac, See also:buff and See also:peach-blossom, through See also:violet, See also:chestnut and See also:crimson, to a nearly See also:absolute See also:black.

The fierceness with which ospreys defend their eggs and See also:

young, in addition to the dangerous situation not infrequently chosen for the eyry, make the task of robbing the nests difficult. The See also:term " osprey," applied to the nuptial plumes of the egrets in the See also:feather See also:trade, is derived from the See also:French esprit; it has nothing to do with the osprey bird, and its use has been supposed to be due to a confusion with " spray." (A.

End of Article: OSPREY, or OSPRAY

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