Saunders — Rough-Legged Hawk Notes. 97 



ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK NOTES. 



BY W. E. SAUNDERS. 



This is a bird that is not often seen by any one but a duck 

 hunter. Once or twice I have had good opportunity of watch- 

 ing this bird for a httle while and a certain Autumn day 

 showed one, hovering after the manner of the Sparrow Hawk, 

 over a stumpy field where there were not enough trees to 

 afford a perch at the desired spot. To my mind this was 

 a hint that the Hawk had nested in a prairie country where 

 he had accustomed himself to that method of hunting. How 

 these Prairie Hawks must welcome the advent of railroads 

 with its telegraph poles ! I can easily imagine that the, large 

 numbers of Swainson Hawks, which I saw in my first trips 

 West in the nineties, were really attracted to the railroad 

 by these perches. Before then, the dry prairies must have 

 been hunted almost exclusively on the wing which is con- 

 trary to the nature of the Buteo as noticed in the east. Twice 

 in the spring, about the 26th of March, I have seen two or 

 more of these birds, not far apart, near London, but on dis- 

 mounting from my wheel to watch them, although I got be- 

 hind a snake fence and used my glass through it, the bird 

 soon flew away, calling once or twice with a note very similar 

 indeed to that of the Red-tail. 



In my list of average dates of arrival in the Autumn, 

 which I have compiled from notes extending over twenty- 

 five years, I have a memorandum on October 29th, — "this 

 is the day to see Rough-legged Hawks," but it was only 

 this Fall that I found out zvhcrc was the place to see 

 them. This was on November 2nd, 1908, when Mr. J. 

 S. Wallace and I were near the end of Point Pelee. About 

 the middle of the morning we saw the first Rough-leg. He 

 was circling over a field after the manner of a migrating 

 Broad-wing and drifting south at the same time. Soon he 

 ceased circling and fle,w past so near us that his markings 

 could be seen very plainly. On the way to camp that morn- 

 ing we saw a number of others but it was not until after 

 dinner that they really appeared in numbers. I was sitting 



