7 HE MARSH HA WK. 439 



with white, wing-feathers and wing-coverts often tipped 

 and specked with white, the long bill black, toes much 

 joined together; the female, with a chestnut band across 

 the lower breast, just below the one of slaty blue, has also 

 chestnut along the sides. 



The fish-diet of this bird makes it very disagreeable to 

 the taxidermist. It is a most characteristic bird of North 

 America, reaching to Central America and the West India 

 Islands. About the valleys of the Rio Grande, Colorado 

 and southward, there is a beautiful green species but 8 inches 

 long, called Cabanis' Kingfisher. These make up the King- 

 fishers of our continent. 



THE MARSH HAWK. 



While the northern or front side of Buckhorn Island is till- 

 able upland, affording a profitable fruit farm and an elegant 

 grove, the southern part, along Burnt-ship Creek, is an exten- 

 sive marsh, with an abundance of tall grass and sedges, 

 elegantly ornamented with wild flowers, and an occasional 

 group of alders. Here I take a stroll, gun in hand. A 

 quieter spot it would be difficult to find, but oh ! how trying, 

 to a sweet temper even, to traverse these hummocks! They 

 are scarcely larger than a man's hat, and afford such a luxu- 

 riant growth of tall marsh-grass, that one can scarcely 

 force the foot through it, while all the interspaces are a bot- 

 tomless soft mire. I make my perilous way, catching hold 

 of the grass to support my uncertain steps, and unable to 

 observe anything, when lo! I am startled by putting up a 

 fine female of the Marsh Hawk or Harrier (Circus cyaneus 

 var. hudsonius). She rises but a few feet ahead of me, and 

 on reaching the spot I find the feathers of the Common 

 Rail, the late quarry of the startled bird. These Hawks 

 are so plenty as to be almost constantly in sight about this 



