ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD— BLACK HAWK. 65 



of the accompanying Plates, was taken from a particularly dark 

 bird shot near Montreal. These Black Hawks are mentioned, 

 in all of our local lists as "rare." In Europe this melanism 

 has not been observed. 



Mr. Reeks kept a bird of this species, taken in Newfoundland 

 alive, for two months, and fed it almost entirely on trout {sahiio 

 fontinalis), to which it seemed particularly partial. This same 

 bird, however, " invariably refused smelts, either dead or alive, 

 and fresh from the water." The Rouo;h-lesr is a summer mig-rant 

 to Newfoundland, but, Mr. Reeks says, " as a rule remains later 

 in the fall than most of the F'alconidae." It occurs likewise in 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and in Labrador. In the 

 McKenzie River district Ross mentions the Rouorh-leooed Hawk 

 as common as far north as Lapierre's House, and the Black Hawk 

 as rare northward to Salt River. They are said to breed in great 

 numbers to the northward of Great Slave Lake. 



,,■".., Since writing the foregoing, and while this was in press, 

 I have received an additional lot of specimens of the Rough-legged 

 Buzzard. These were all taken in the Province of Quebec. They 

 show every stage of plumage from the vonng-of-the-year to ap- 

 parently the fully adult bird — which is of a uniform dark broivii 

 color. Three of them have a great deal of hoary-white on the 

 crown and hind head, and these are further remarkable for very 

 broad, black, abdominal belts, and almost unspotted breasts. 

 There are five specimens labelled " Black Hawks," and these from 

 the appearance of their bills, feet, claws and wear of feathers, are 

 evidently birds of many summers. I have now examined twenty- 

 nine skins of this species, and am fully convinced that the dark 

 stage is the true adult bird, and not merely " a melanotic condi- 

 tion." I am also informed that this stage is met with yearly and 

 during every month of the summer in the low lands and boggy 

 tracts around Lake St. Peter, Sorel, and Three Rivers ; in the 

 neighborhood of the Bay of Ouinte, Belleville, Ontario ; and in 

 the marshes bordering on the Cataraqui river near Kingston. 

 Consequently it is only natural to suppose that the bird nests in 



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