ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 199 



relinquish the chase, after spending much time in 

 vain."* They delight in low situations for their 

 hunting districts, and prey on the various water- 

 fowl, small mammalia, frogs, and toads ; they 

 pounce on their prey, and do not pursue it, 

 though Audubon remarks, " It now and then 

 pursues a wounded one ;"f their flight is smooth 

 and slow, and from the structure of the feathers, 

 noiseless and buoyant, soaring in the breeding 

 season like the Common Buzzard. 



Audubon, when describing this bird, has 

 advanced an opinion which it may be proper 

 shortly to notice. He considers the Rough-legged 

 Buzzard as the young of the Black Hawk, F. 

 niger, of Wilson. We have had no opportunity 

 of comparing the birds, but we feel inclined to 

 consider the opinion erroneous. We find frequent 

 records of the bird breeding in the supposed 

 immature plumage. We do not know F. niger as 

 a European bird ; and we suspect that the young 

 state of F. (Buteo) niger will very closely resem- 

 ble our European bird, and that it has thus, in 

 some instances, been confounded with it, which 

 an inspection of the figures of Wilson (pi. 53, 

 fig. 2) tends to confirm. The subject is never- 

 theless worthy of investigation. 



The form of the Rough-legged Buzzard is more 



* Faun. Bor. Am. ii. p. 53. 

 t Orn. Biog. ii. p. 378. 



