110 BIRDS OP PREY. 



neath wliite without spots ; the quills black towards the end. — 

 Female and young dark brown ; beneath pale yellowish-brown 

 with dark spots ; the wings on the under side banded with black 

 and white ; tail, except the 2 middle dusky feathers, barred with 

 blackish and pale brown. 



This species is common to the northern and temper- 

 ate, as well as the warmer parts of the old and new 

 continents, being met with in Europe, Africa, South 

 America, and the West Indies. In the winter season it 

 extends its peregrinations from Hudson's Bay to the 

 southern parts of the United States, frequenting chiefly 

 open, low, and marshy situations, over which it sweeps 

 or skims along, at a little distance usually from the 

 ground, in quest of mice, small birds, frogs, lizards, and 

 other reptiles, which it often selects by twilight, as well 

 as in the open day ; and at times, pressed by hunger, it 

 joins the Owls, and seeks out its prey even by moonlight. 

 Their propensity for marsh birds renders them very ser- 

 viceable to the rice plantations of the southern states, 

 over which they frequently hover, and thin and rout the 

 destructive ranks of the Rice Buntings while feeding 

 among this grain. Instances have been known in Eng- 

 land, in which this bird has carried his temerity so far 

 as to pursue the same game with the armed fowler, and 

 even snatch it from his grasp, after calmly waiting for it 

 to be shot, and without even betraying timidity at the 

 report of the gun. The nest of this species is made on 

 the ground, in swampy woods, or among rushes, occa- 

 sionally also under the protection of rocky precipices; and 

 is formed of sticks, reeds, leaves, straw, and similar mate- 

 rials heaped together, and finished with a lining of feath- 

 ers, hair, or other soft substances. The eggs are 4 or 5, 

 of a dirty bluish white and without spots. In the 

 F. cineraceus, so nearly related to this species, the eggs 

 are of a pure white. When their young are approached, 



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