310 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Several nests were also taken on the shores and among the islets of the 

 Arctic coast, west of Liverpool Bay. 



The egg of the Hough-legged Hawk taken hy the Storers in Labrador 

 measures 2.06 inches in length by 1.88 in breadth, and is nearly spherical. 

 Tlie ground-color is a soiled white or a light drab, and is marked with. a few 

 faint^ ill-delined spots of light umber, distributed at intervals over the entire 



surface. 



Two European specimens in my collection are so nearly like the American 

 tliat the same description would answer for both. They are a trifle larger, 

 but tlieir color and markings are exactly the same. These eggs vary from 

 2.25 to 2.12 inches in length, and the breadth of each is 1.75 inches. In one 

 specimen the ground-color is of a deeper shade of dingy-white, with larger 

 blotches, and its purplish-slate markings are intermingled \\ith those of 

 umber. A fourth, from Switzerland, varies from most others of this species, 

 and is marked over a cream-colored ground with very numerous and quite 

 large blotches of different shades of umber and sepia-brown. It measures 

 2.25 by 1.93 inches. 



Six eggs taken by Mr. IMacFarlane have an average length of 2.18 and an 

 average breadth of 1.79 inches. Their greatest length is 2.24, and their least 

 2.12 inches. There is but very little variation in their breadth, or only 

 from 1.76 to 1.80 inches. Occasionally these eggs are of a nearly uniform 

 dingy-white, nearly unmarked, and only by very faint cloudings. These 

 cases are rare. Generally they have a creamy-white ground and are Ijoldly 

 marked with blotches of a varying intensity of umber or sepia-brown. In- 

 termingled with these are obscure markings of a purplish-slate. 



The dark variety of the Eough-legged Falcon, recognized by some as the 

 A. sancti-johannis, Mr. Eidgway is disposed to regard as rather an individual 

 melanism of the common species, rather than as a distinctive race. In this 

 form it appears to be quite generally distributed over the continent, rather 

 in isolated pairs than as a common bird. It was not taken on the Anderson 

 Piixer by Mr. ilacFarlane, where the lagopvs style was extremely common, 

 liundreds of skins having been sent by him to the Smithsonian Institution. 



The dark-colored birds are seen occasionally in Massachusetts in the win- 

 ter season, and are usually found frequenting low alluvial tracts in search 

 of small quadrupeds and frogs, and occasionally well-marked sj)ecimens have 

 been secured in the neighborhood of Boston. A iiaiv was found breeding 

 near tlie mouth of the Kennebec liiver in Elaine, and the eggs were secured. 

 They were not readily distinguishable from those of the common Eough- 

 legged Hawk. It is also said, on the authority of Mr. John Krider of 

 Philadelphia, to have been found breeding in Xew Jersey, and the eggs 

 taken. The parent bird was not secured. These eggs resembled well-marked 

 eggs of the lagopu-s. "Wilson, who observed birds in this plumage on the 

 mai-shy banks of the Delaware, describes them as remarkably shj' and wary, 

 frequenting river-banks, and feeding on mice, moles, and other small game. 



