U()ir(jii-LK(;GED HAWK. 89 



seen it ;itt;ick water fowl, or in tact any otliei- bird. Anion.i;' tliosc 

 (jucstioncd on the subject area nunil)er of eminent oniitliologists, some 

 of whom have published the statement that tlio llou^h leg feeds ou 

 wounded ducks. The error arose from their taking information second- 

 hand from gunners who i)robably mistook either (he Duck TTawk or 

 I'rairie Falcon for the bird und<'r consideration When hard. [>ressed by 

 hunger it may feed on dead water fowl as well as the carcasses of other 

 animals. 



IMiose Hawks tliat remain farthest north in winter are more often 

 forced by circumstances to feed on refuse. Maynard. says that in Mas- 

 sachusetts they feed npon fish and the dead animals cast up by the sea, 

 and Mr. V«'rnon liailey, writing Irom VAk Uiver, Minnesota, says: "A 

 few years ago, piobably in 1883, 1 was trapping for muskrats and minks 

 late in the fall. As the place was over a mile from home, and I was 

 catching a good many rats, I skinned them and left the carcasses where 

 caught. Soon I noticed that these were ol'ten eaten or gone. IJough- 

 legged Hawks were unusually numerous that I'all, and stayed nearly all 

 winter. One morning 1 came suddenly to the top of a hill and saw a 

 hawk fly away from a half-eaten rat on the other side, it was promptly 

 shot, and proved to be a. line dark Itongh leg. IMiis was the only tinu^. 

 that I caught the hawk in the act, but from the manner in which The 

 rats were eaten, the number of hawks present, and alter siu)w came 

 the tracks seen around the remains of the rats, I had no doubt that the 

 hawks had eaten them." 



The. few specimens which have been secured in summer sonth of the 

 northern boundary of tiu' United States are thosi' which have failed 

 to migrate, presumably (m account of disease or from inability or indis- 

 position to make long Mights after the receipt and healing of gunshot 

 wounds. In all these cases the genitalia are undeveloped. The nest 

 and eggs nu'utioned in the History of North American IJiids as coming 

 from Wiscasset, Me., near the mouth of the Kennebec River, if not an 

 error in identillcation, is probably the only record of the breeding of 

 this sp(M'ies in east<M'n United States. Dr. Warren informs the writer 

 that the instance mentioned in his "Birds of LV'unsylvania" of the 

 Kough-leg breeding in Pennsylvania was a case of misidentification. 

 J>r. (jr. S. Agersl)org gixcs it as breeding onc(^ in southeastern Dakota 

 (Auk, vol. ir, p, 28;")), but<loesnot inform us whether it was found nest- 

 ing or merely that the presence of the bird in summer was taken as 

 evidence. 



It breeds sparingly in Labradctr and the southern ])ortions of Canada 

 west of Manitoba. In the vicinity of Winnipeg, Seton gives it as a. 

 migrant only. (Auk, vol. ill, 188(5, p. 154.) Farther north, even far 

 within the Arctic cii'cle, it is an abundant breeder. Altlumgh common 

 in the Hudson l>ay ami Anderson Itiver regions in northern Alaska, 

 the Old World foriu seems to replace it not only on the seacoast, but 

 •^h)n}i; the entire length of the Yukon. 



The nesting site is nu>i'e, or l(^ss varied, most of the nests being 



