B24 BIRDS. 
Circus, Bechstein. 
The Harriers differ from the Buzzards in their elevated tarsi, and in a 
kind of collar on each side of their neck, formed by the tips of the feathers 
which cover their ears. ; 
There are three species in France, which, from the variety in their 
plumage, have been multiplied by the nomenclators. 
F. pygargus, L.; La Soubuse, Enl. 443 and 480; Naum. xxxviii. 
2, and 39, 1 and 2. Brown above; underneath fawn-coloured, 
longitudinally spotted with brown; the rump white. The Hen Har- 
rier—Falco cyaneus and F. albicans*, Enl. 450; Naum. xxxix. 1; 
cinereous, with black wing quills, is merely the male in its second 
year. This species builds on the ground, keeps constantly in the 
fields, flies near the earth, and towards night hunts rats, young par- 
tridges, &c. 
F’, cineraceus, Montag.; Le Busard Cendré, Naum. 40; Vieill. 
Galer, pl. 13. More slender than the Soubuse, and with longer 
wings; the old male is cinereous; its primary quills, and a band on 
the secondary ones, are black; both male and female, in the second 
year, are brown above, white beneath, with brownish streaks on the 
breast; the whole under-part of the young bird is red. Its habits 
are much like those of the preceding species. 
F. rufus, L.; La Harpaye, Enl. 470; Naum. 37,1. Brownish 
and reddish; the tail, and primary quills of the wings, cinereous. 
The Busard du marais, the Marsh Buzzard—Falco e@ruginosus, 
Enl. 424; Naum. 38, brown, with alight fawn colour on the head 
and breast, is considered as the same bird at a more advanced age; 
but some observers pretend it is a different species. Both of them 
keep themselves by preference within reach of water, in order to 
hunt reptilest. Finally, the ) 
SERPENTARIUS, Cuv.—GypoceEranus, Lllig.t 
The Messenger, or Secretary, is an African bird of prey, whose 
tarsi are at least double the length of those of the preceding ones, 
which caused some naturalists to place it among the Grallatorie, or 
its elevated tarsi, but is deficient in the collar; the transitions between these two df 
visions, also, are almost insensible. 
* It is also the I’. communis, F. albus, Frisch, pl. xxv, the F. montanus, B., the F. 
griseus, Gm., and also his F. bohemicus. 
N. B. The M. cresserelle of Vieillot has become his genus IcTinia. 
f Add the Acoli, Vaill. Afr. 31 (F. acoli, Sh.);—the Tchoug, Id. 32, and Sonnerat, 
Il. 182 (F. melanoleucos).—F. palustris, Pr. Max. Co]. 22.—The Frogeater, Vaill. Afr. 
28 (FP. ranivorus, Sh.—The Busard roux, Vieill. Amer. pl. ix, which this author con- 
siders as identical with the F. hudsonius, Edw. 107.—The Busard d’hiver (Circus hye- 
malis), Vieill. Amer. 71, which does not appear to be the F. hiemalis, Wils. TV. xxxv. 
1 (a).—The Busard a croupion blanc. (Circ. europogistus), Vieill. Amer. 8.—Probably, 
also, the F. udiginosus, Edw. 291, belongs to this subgenus; but, until the changes of 
plumage produced by age are ascertained, it will be very difficult to determine its 
species. M. Ch. Bonaparte says that the F. uliginosus is a young female of the 
cyanets. 
{ M. Vieillot has changed these names into OpHIOTHERES, Gal. pl. 260, 
kas" (a) The bird figured by Wilson, Vol. IV, pl. xxxv, fig. 1, is the true Falco 
hyemalis, Gm.—Ene. Epit. 
