I-2, Accipiter Piscatorius, The Fishing Hawk

Mark Catesby, Natural History I-2, The Fishing Hawk

This bird weighs 3.25 pounds. Its wingspan is 5.5 inches. The bill is black, with a blue cere. The iris of the eye is yellow. The crown of the head is brown with white feathers mixed in. Behind each eye is a brown stripe. All the upper parts of the back, wings, and tail are dark brown. The throat, neck, and belly are white. The legs and feet are remarkably rough and scaly, and of a pale blue color. The talons are black and of almost equal size. The feathers of the thighs are short and adhere close to the legs, unlike those of other hawks; this feature seems designed by nature to help them penetrate the water easily.

To fish, they hover above the water and then plunge into it with prodigious speed. The hawk remains underwater for several minutes and seldom rises without a fish.

As soon as the bald eagle – which is generally on the watch – spies this fish, he flies at the hawk. The hawk ascends, screaming out, but the eagle always soars above him at compels the hawk to drop the fish. The eagle almost always catches the fish before it hits the water. It is remarkable that whenever the hawk catches a fish, he calls, as it were, for the eagle, who always obeys this call if he is within hearing.

The lower parts of the rivers and creeks near the sea abound with these eagles and hawks, where these diverting contests are frequently seen