550 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — BAPTOBES — A CCIPITBES. 



A. ferrugineus is highly distinctive of the latter. Length of a 9> 22.00; extent 54.00; wing 

 17.50; tail 9.00 ; iris light brown; bill mostly blackish-blue, cere pale greenish-yellow, feet 

 dull yellow, claws blue-black. This is about an average size ; the $ averages smaller ; wing 

 about 16.00, etc. The name adopted, it must be observed, is not intended to discriminate the 

 black from the ordinary plumage, but to separate the American bird subspecifically from the 

 European. N. Am., at large, common, especially in fertile, well-watered regions, as those of 





Fig. 382. — Rough-legged Buzzard, \ nat. size. (From Brehm.) 



the Atlantic seaboard ; a large, heavy, and somewliat sluggish hawk, haunting meadows and 

 marshes, to some extent crepuscular in habits, of low, easy, and almost noiseless flight ; prey- 

 ing upmi insignificant quarry, particularly small rodent and insectivorous mammals, reptiles, 

 batrachians and insects. Nest usually in large trees, but frequently on a ledge of rocks or the 

 edge of a cut-bank ; a bulky mass of interlaced sticks, with softer matted material of miscel- 

 laneous kinds ; eggs 3-5, laid late in May and in June, measuring 2.10-2 25 in length, by 

 1.75-1.80 in breadth; varying in color from dingy whitish with scarcely any marking, or but 



