CORRESPONDENCE 239 



I do not think we know all about the Black and Rough-legged 

 Hawk yet. I do not say they are uot the same but I am a great 

 way from being convinced and I have taken some pains to corre- 

 spond with some good ornithologists, long ago, who 1 will not say 

 have had the best opportunities for knowing, perhaps not so good 

 as those of your friends. One of them lived north where they are 

 common, where they were the most abundant hawk, and where it 

 was not an uncommon thing to see a dozen flying about at the 

 same time, for ten years. He said that in his locality in 1862-G3, 

 sixty nests were taken. I have a very minute description of eggs, 

 nests, birds young and old. They breed very late. He says this 

 hawk varies more in the shading of its coloring than any other 

 hawk. The female is generally lightest, and a very old bird nearly 

 gray. The young with backs light brown, dark band across the 

 belly, under parts white with a few spots, but he says he never 

 saw a black hawk, young or old, in all his residence among them. 



Now I would like to ask your friends who have had the best 

 of opportunities to know, this question : That in taking this hawk 

 from the nest in dozens of instances if they ever took a black 

 one, young or old? If they ever saw an old black hawk feeding a 

 brood of young Rough Legs, or vice versa? You say the fact of 

 the Rough-leg being abundant in some places, and no black hawks, 

 is no proof of their being identical. I do not say it is positive, but 

 it is good prima facie evidence. When a good collector has lived 

 among them a long time, taken dozens of nests of old birds, of eggs 

 and of young, and there was uot one black in all the male, female, 

 or young, what do you say ? But this is no proof because, as Mr. 

 Cooper asks: " Why has not some oologist found the eggs?" I 

 suppose he would say Leach's and Wilsou's petrels are the same 

 because no oologist has ever found the eggs of the Wilson. 



You also instance the Red-throated Loon in adult plumage; 

 also the Grebe as never being found in your latitude. The old 

 birds are with you just as much as the young. They go south as 

 regular as wild geese but not in breeding pluruage except in 

 spring. I saw one Red-throat killed in Long Island Sound last 

 April, with the throat most changed to red. All ornithologists, 

 European and American, say the American and European rough-leg 

 are one and the same bird. I have sent black hawk skins to the 

 best ornithologist in London, who says they have nothing like it 



