7O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



seemed to be catching grasshoppers. I do not know what else he could be 

 after by the way he ran around and would fly a few feet and light again. 

 It was after something, whatever it was. I could not approach it as I was 

 in plain view so I let it work and it flew into the woods after about 25 

 minutes of flapping and running around. I have not seen any mate as 

 yet. Mosher [one of his sons] saw the bird yesterday [July i6th] while 

 I was from home and he said it lit on a tall pine and sat there for a full 

 hour and then took a sail in the air and went out of sight behind some trees. 

 I am watching its movements and will write you again." 



In 1900 Mr Haight saw three more kites on June 9, and noticed one 

 about his place until June 19. All of this evidence would seem to indicate 

 that the Swallow-tailed kite has established a home in Rensselaer county, 

 N. Y., but absolute evidence of its breeding in this State is still lacking. 



Circus hudsonius (Linnaeus) 

 Marsh Hawk 



Plates 43 and 48 



Falco hudsonius Linnaeus. S. N. Ed. 12. 1766. 1:128 

 Circus uligenosus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 20, fig. 7 

 Circus hudsonius A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 155. No. 331 

 circus L., Gr. xfpxos, a hawk, from its circling flight; hudsonius of Hudson Bay 



Description. Wings and tail long, legs long and slender, face with a 

 partial ruff, external ear large and fitted with a conch, general build light, 

 plumage loose and owl-like in softness, sexes unlike in color, but both with 

 white upper tail coverts. Adult cf : Ashy or bluish gray above and on the 

 upper breast, rest of under parts white with a few rufous streaks and mottlings 

 on the sides and belly; tail lighter pearly gray with 5 or 6 imperfectly 

 defined blackish bars; 5 outer primaries blackish, and all the wing feathers 

 with the inner webs near the bases white; legs, cere and iris yellow. 

 Adult 9 : Fuscous or umber brown above varied with rufous or yellowish 

 brown, especially streakings on the head and neck and mottlings on the 

 wing coverts; under parts ocherous buff or brownish yellow, streaked more 

 or less with fuscous or umber brown; tail with 6 or 7 blackish bars, the middle 

 feathers also with ashy bars. Young: Resemble the female but are 

 darker above with more reddish mottlings on the wing coverts and feather 

 edges. More rufous below with no streaks on the belly. 



