2OO8 



THE DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 



The tail is grayish brown, tipped with white, and all the feathers banded with 

 darker brown. In both sexes the legs and toes are yellow, with black claws; but the 

 cere is a more greenish yellow in the female than in the male. The young male re- 

 sembles the female in color, but may be distinguished by its relatively-shorter wing. 

 In length the male measures about twenty-one and the female twenty-two inches. 

 This harrier is found throughout Europe and Siberia; extending in winter into the 

 northeast of Africa, Northern India, and China. The American harrier (C. hudso- 



AFRICAN NAKED-CHEEKED HAWK AND MANY-ZONED WHISTLING HAWK. 



(One-sixth natural size.) 



nianus), commonly known as the marsh hawk, replaces the hen harrier in North 

 America, and is distinguished by the more decided gray of the upper parts and 

 throat, as well as by some flecks of reddish brown on the white of the under surface 

 in the male; the naked portion of the metatarsus is also slightly longer. In Britain 

 the hen harrier seems always to have been the rarest species, but the effects of 

 drainage have not told so severely upon its numbers as on those of the marsh har- 



