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"Only rarely doe.s the Osprey deviate from a diet of fish, 
as is shown both by field studies and stomach examinations. 
T. G. Gentry (1877) states that "the food of this species 
consists mainly of fish, although the reptiles and frogs 
which infest the swamps where it builds, do not escape its 
vigilance." C. S. Allen (1892) found the wing of a freshly 
killed Crow in a nest containing young Ospreys on Plum Island, 
New York, and states that Night Herons in a nearby rookery were 
killed almost daily by the Ospreys which "seemed to unjustly 
accuse the herons of the robbery" of eggs by marauding Crows, 
but he had no positive evidence that either species was used 
as food by the Fish Hawks. C. E. Bendire (1892) says the food 
consists entirely of fish, usually of inferior quality; in 
Florida it is almost all catfish and near the Pacific coast 
it is to a great extent suckers. A. K. Fisher (1893) also 
states that the Osprey feeds entirely on fish. Paul Bartsch 
(1900) says, "I have often noticed one with a water snake in its
talons." C. G. Abbott (1911) quotes R. C. Murphy as having 
examined an Osprey "in a starved and emaciated condition" which 
had been killed with a stick by a woman who "had found the hawk 
with its talons sunk in a hen and flapping violently in an 
attempt to fly off with its prey." O. H. P. Rodman (1926) avers 
that he has known Ospreys to kill chickens on a few occasions but 
gives no definite data to back up the rather loose expression. 
C. D. Kuser (1929) states that a gamekeeper in New Jersey saw an 
Osprey swoop down and seize a young Duck and the following day 
the Osprey returned "and snatched up a half-grown Mallard," 
the Osprey being shot while carrying its prey. L. A. Luttringer, 
Jr. (1930), says that one was shot in Pennsylvania when it 
attempted to carry off a chicken. This constitutes all the 
evidence I have been able to find regarding any food of the 
Osprey other than fish."