OWLS. 



307 



which are deposited four or five very pale blue eggs. The young are 

 hatched about the middle of June. 



The two sexes differ very greatly in color, and until comparatively 

 recent times were recorded as distinct species. The general color of 

 the adult male is ashen 

 gray from the beak and 

 upper parts, the only ex- 

 ception being the prima- 

 ries, which are black. The 

 throat and chin are nearly 

 of the same hue as the 

 beak, but the chest and 

 abdomen are white, with a 

 slight blue tinge, which is 

 lost upon the plumage of 

 the thigh. On the under 

 surface of the tail are sev- 

 eral indistinct dark bars, 

 and the hair-like feathers 

 between the eye and the 

 base of the beak are 

 black. The legs, toes, 

 and cere are yellow, the 

 claws black, and the beak 

 nearly black, with a bluish 

 tinge. The length of the 



male bird is about eigh- The Blue Hawk or Hen Harrier {Circus 

 teen inches. cyaneus). 



The female is a much darker bird, the back and upper portions be- 

 ing of a deep dusky brown, and the primaries being but a little darker 

 than the plumage of the back. The feathers of the under parts are 

 lighter brown, with pale margins, so as to present a kind of mottled 

 buff and chestnut aspect; the upper surface of the tail is marked with 

 partial dark bands, and its under surface is very distinctly bound with 

 broad bands of black and grayish white. The funnel-shaped depres- 

 sion round the eyes — technically called the concha, or shell — is brown 

 toward the base of the feathers, but merges into a white eyebrow 

 above, reaching to the cere. Her length is about two inches more than 

 that of the male, and her spread of wing is about three feet six inches. 



OWLS. 



There are few groups of birds which are so decidedly marked as the 

 Owls, and so easy of recognition. The round, puffy head, the little 



