462 AVES—HAWK...BUZZARD. 
THE MARSH HAWK! 
Is, no doubt, the same species as the ring-tailed hawk of Europe. They are 
very common in New Jersey, where they are known by the name of mouse 
hawk. It is said, by Bonaparte, to be the young hen-harrier. They are 
most numerous in extensive meadows and salt .marshes, over which they 
sail very low, making frequent circuitous sweeps over the ground, in 
search of a species of mouse, very abundant in such situations. It is 
said by European writers to build on the ground, or on the low limbs of 
trees. It is found at Hudson’s Bay. It is particularly serviceable to the 
rice fields of the southern states, by the havoc it makes among the clouds of 
rice buntings that spread so much devastation among that grain. The 
planters consider one hawk to be equal to severa: negroes for alarming the 
rice birds. © 
THE. RED-T ALL E Di ve ASW. OR 1B U2 ZAR, D2 
Innasits the whole of the United States. Among the extensive meadows 
that border the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers below Philadelphia, where 
flocks of larks, and where mice and moles are in great abundance, many 
individuats of this hawk spend the greater part of the winter. Others prow] 
about the plantations, looking for vagrant chickens; their method of seizing 
which, is by sweeping swiftly over the spot; and then, grappling them with 
their talons, they bear them away to the woods. 
‘ 
THE AMERICAN BU ZZA R D3 
RESEMBLEs the red-tailed hawk, in size and general aspect, but differs some- 
what in color. It may perhaps on investigation be found to be the. same. 
It is more numerous than the latter, but frequents the same _ situations 
in the winter. One, which was shot on the wing, lived several weeks, 
but refused to eat. It amused itself by frequently hopping from one end of 
the room to the other, and sitting for hours at the window, looking down 
on the passengers below. At first, when approached by any one, he drew 
back; but after some time, he became quite familiar, permitting himself to 
be handled, and shutting his eyes as if quite passive. Though he lived so 
1ong without food, he was found on dissection to be exceedingly fat. 
1F cyaneus, Lr. 2 F’. borealis, GMEL. 3 F'. buteoides, NUTTALL 
