HAWKS 219 



Subfamily ACCIPITRIN^. Kites, Buzzards, Hawks, 

 Goshawks, Eagles, etc. 



Genus CIRCUS Lacepede. 



•^331. Circus hudsonms (Linn.). Marsh Hawk; Harrier; 

 Blue Hawk. 



Plumage of adult male : upper tail coverts white ; tail gray, more or less 

 barred with blackish ; upper parts and upper breast gray ; breast and belly 

 white with rufous spots and bars. Plumage of adult female : upper tail 

 coverts white ; the outer tail feathers barred with buff and black, the inner 

 with ashy and black ; upper parts fuscous, streaked on head and neck and 

 margined on wing coverts with rufous ; below ochraceous buff, streaked with 

 fuscous. Immature plumage : differs from the female in being darker above 

 and far darker below. Wing 13.00 to 15.50; tarsus 3.00. 



Geog. Dist. — North America in general ; in winter south to Panama, 

 Bahamas and Cuba. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; common summer resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook; local summer resident along the Aroostook and Woolastook 

 Rivers and their tributaries, (Knight). Cumberland; common summer 

 resident, (Mead). Franklin ; common summer resident, (Swain). Hancock; 

 summer resident, (Dorr). Kennebec; rare, (Gardiner Branch). Knox; 

 summer, (Rackliff). Oxford; breeds commonly, (Nash). Penobscot; local 

 summer resident, (Knight). Piscataquis; common, breeds, (Homer). Sag- 

 adahoc ; common summer resident, (Spinney). Somerset; common migrant, 

 rare summer resident, (Morrell). Waldo; local summer resident, (Knight). 

 Washington; abundant summer resident, (Boardman). York; breeds, 

 (Adams). 



In the vicinity of various meadows, marshes and similar 

 localities this species is a local summer resident, usually only 

 one pair to a given locality of considerable area. As a migrant 

 it occurs generally and commonly, first appearing in spring 

 between April fifteenth and April twentieth and in the fall 

 usually gone for the larger part by the last of September, 

 very exceptionally it has been taken as late as November twelfth. 



They are birds of the open meadow and mere, flying along 

 close to the ground in search of mice, birds, reptiles, and insects. 

 Small birds and poultry form only a minor portion of their 

 diet which is indeed chiefly mice. When hunting they often 

 keep up a continuous screeching as they fly along, swiftly and 



