The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-07-29
TIE HAWAIIAN F~ISK-HAWK-Iaa 81
dion S~olitarius. (Cdssin.)
BY s. b. DOLE.

genus which includes the Ospreys OF America
England and India, is exceedingly rare. Even IN
the Hawaiian Islands, where it makes its home
but few are aware of it's existence, and it is not
found in any other part of the world. A single
specimen, preserved in the museum of the Phila,
delphia Academy of Natural Sciences, furnishes
all the data in the possession of the scientific
world, relating to this fine and interesting bird
The almost mythical nature of the information
regarding it, together with the fact that it is
with little doubt, the only member of it's family
the Falconide, which belongs to these islands,
gives it an unusual interest.
/ cannot easily forget the occasion OF the hrst
and only time in which / ever saw one of these
birds alive. During a boat trip which made
several years ago between the islands OF Kauai
and Niihau. after passing the night on the water
without wind, and having made but moderate
progress with the oars, we took the trades just
after sunrise, and in a little while rounded the
lofty and picturesque promontory that makes the
most s~outherly point of Niihau, and wearing to
the right, skIrted the south-wester shore of the
island.-a wild and desolate shore, rock-bound,
vet torn and Jagged and scanned, as it the
volcanic forces in their last terrible throes had
eXUdueGtu luelI MiSEtlCcS bAChSeh oN
own sign-manual forever legible in the tumbled
and billowy lodges of blackened lava, against
which the ocean flung it's waves in ceaseless
thunders. But if the land gave no signs OF life,
the sea made up for it in the exuberant populous-
ness OF its clear depths which it yielded to our
sight, beyond anything | had ever seen before.
In one little cave where we were becalmed tor
some minutes in the lee of the promontory which
we first passed, the CLASSY waters, unruftied by
the wind, revealed a charming view of marine
life fishes of many kinds and sizes, some strange
and weird, others beautiful in form and color.
disported beneath us in all the fantastic and
graceful evolutions of fnny merriment or COM
bat more sluggish creatures crawled through
the coral growth on the s~ea-aoor, and sea-hoWers,
half imbued with animal life, waved their petals,
or perhaps more properly, their tentacule, to
the swing of the tide above them. Farther on
with the wind again, flying past and almost
grazing some outjutting spur of rock, crowned
with swaying sea-weeds, or running across blue
water inlets where the shore took new forms and
the sea new changes of surf and withdrawing
breakers, we passed through an immense school
of spouting ~porpoises which crowded, in thou
LII duQ IIOucSLuOC, IL a. W q iOhS NAO
lance, surrounding us on all sides, leaping out to
the right and left from under the bows of our
boat as we dashed along. and frolicking in their
clumsy g~ambols, apparently quite undisturbed
by our presence. Among these surroundings, so
and SO grand the shore Scared and
scared and dead the ocean 50 teaming with life
the beautiful, futed sides of the cathedral-lik ike
rising majesticaily behind us, in wide,
graceful circles the fish-hawk swept into view
from the upper air, and lowering for a moment
over the shore, settled himself upon the crest of
the rocks, nearly opposite to us in the boat, and
CHANGING around, with outstretched head
md half lifted wings, his shaggy legs apart, the
picture Of guarded watchiulness, then as if salts
led with his position, he shook Town his rufled
Gathers and folded his wings, and as We passed,
turned upon US the gaze of his piercing
Fellow eyes. Here was his home the prolific
offered him an easy living. His nest,
without doubt, built in the face of some neigh
,oring bluff. contained his wife and family, for
whom he may have been in search of breakfast.
though the smallest of his genus, he is a power
Ill and splendid bird, a perfect little eagle in
ppearance, with back and wings and tail of a
rich brown, and with pale buff feathers on
lis head and legs and underneath. His body,
My seventeen inches in length, is supported in
he air with a spread of wing of four feet or
yer, giving him great power of flight. His
novement is bold and graceful, and like others
f the rapacious birds, be possesses the power OF
esting motionless in the air with out-spread I.
wing for a considerable time. F.,
l am not aware that any one has noted the {
hammer of fishing employed by this bird, but it
does not differ from that of the Osprey. ,
quote from Woods Natural History: mo =
ooner does a fish come into view than the Osprey |
boots through the air like a meteor, descends '
pom the luckless fish with such force that it |
rives a shower of spray in every direction, and 5
Don emerging, flies away to its nest bearing it's ]
rey IN its grasp. In order to enable it to seize @
nd retain so slippery a creature as a fish, the
laws of the Osprey are long, curved and very
harp, the soles of the feet are rough, and the
utter toe is capable OF great versatility. When '
ne bi'd has settled upon its nest or upon any h
poe "here it intends to eat its prey, 1T does not a
its hold, but, as if fearful that the q
should ESCAPE, continues its grasp and :
aintly picks away the Aesh from between its O
,es. Sometimes, in making its swoop, it arrests t
for a second or two, as if to watch Soma t
hange of position on the part Of its intended l.
s
The rarity and solitary character of the l1a- e
fsh-hawk is a remarkable fact, as the :
Their species of the genus often live and fish to- 3
ether in considerable numbers. 1t is hardly v
that it has any enemies except the
rigate-bird, to which monarch of the air it, as '
ell as all other fishing birds, has often to sur I
snder its prey. c
The specimen in the Philadelphia museum
from Kealakekua, Hawaii, and was con- p
by Mr.. Cochran Forbes, then living at 9
hat place. They have also been noticed on Mo- a
,kai, and on Niihau, as stated above.
DESCRIPTION. 4
Pandion solitarius Cassin, United States Expl. O
xped., Mammalogy and Ornithology, p. 81. I
tlas, pl. w. Adult.-(Polioaetus, sub. gen., t