560 APPENDIX. 



claws. When disturbed it makes a short circuit, and soon 

 settles on some other perch. Its nest, on a tree, is made of 

 short sticks, and sparingly lined with deer's hair. The eggs 

 3 to 5 in number, are equal in size to those of the domestic 

 fowl, and have a greenish-white color, with a few large dark- 

 brown blotches at the thick end. It was seen as far north 

 as the 57th parallel, and it most probably takes a still high- 

 er range. In France, the flesh is accounted a delicacy and 

 much sought after during winter. 



Length of the male Buzzard about 22 inches. — The dorsal aspect 

 between clove and blackish-brown, the margins of the feathers paler; 

 the head and hind part of the back darker, the edges of the rest of 

 the plumage fading into soiled yellowish-brown. Quills and long 

 scapulars, blackish-brown ; some obscure bars on the former. Secon- 

 daries and a few adjoining primaries narrowly tipped with brownish- 

 white. Tail deep clove-brown, with a narrow soiled tip, crossed by 

 about 7 obscure bars of a deeper shade, the terminal one an inch 

 broad. Under surface : the cheeks clove-brown ; throat white ; sides 

 and fore part of the neck, and upper part of the breast, dull brocoli- 

 brown, slightly mixed with yellowish-brown. Belly and thighs 

 pale yellowish-brown, indistinctly barred with white. "Vent and 

 under tail coverts soiled white. Flanks yellowish-brown, with some 

 patches of clove-brown. Tail square, beneath very pale ash-grey, 

 crossed by 7 bars of clove-brown. Bill bluish-black. Cere and legs 

 yellowish. Bill broad at base, flatly convex above, much compressed 

 towards the tip, which forms a rather slender acute hook. The low- 

 er mandible very obliquely truncated at the end. The 3d quill 

 longest. 



The general color of the female similar with that of the male, but 

 the black bars on the tail are more distinct; the breast darker, the 

 belly less bright, and as well as the flanks studded v/ith short bars of 

 blackish-brown. The cere and legs have a bluish livid color. The 

 3d and 4th quills are also equal. — Length 26 inches ; tail 10. 



