94 BIRDS OF OHIO. 



This is another Httle known hawk, not because it is rare, 

 for it is present in some numbers throughout the state, but 

 because it apparently differs but little from several other 

 middle-sized hawks. It is about the size of the Cooper 

 Hawk, but differs from that species in having a much short- 

 er tail and in having the wings more slender and therefore 

 more pointed instead of rounded. It differs from the Sharp- 

 shinned in being larger and in its habit of soaring like the 

 other hawks of the genus Buteo. Perhaps the most reliable 

 character is its unsuspiciousness of man. It will permit a 

 near approach without manifesting either uneasiness or curi- 

 osity. 



Dr. Fisher says : "The food of this hawk consists prin- 

 cipally of insects, small mammals, reptiles, and batrachians, 

 and occasionally of young or disabled birds. A specimen 

 secured by the writer just after a shower was gorged with 

 earthworms. In spring when toads frequent ponds to spawn, 

 it devours large numbers of them, and later in the season 

 it is a not uncommon occurrence to see an individual with a 

 snake or frog dangling from its talons." Probably the great- 

 est service which this hawk renders is in the destruction of 

 large numbers of the large insect larvae which most birds 

 do not touch. While it eats some animals which are bene- 

 ficial it is too useful a bird to be killed indiscriminately, but 

 should be accorded protection. 



This hawk should be found wintering in the state south of 

 Columbus, but probably in small numbers. It reaches north- 

 ern Ohio in the spring about the middle of March, and has 

 gone south again by the middle of November, 



130. (347a.) Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis 

 (Gmel.). 174. 



American Rough-legged Hawk. 



Synonyms: Falco sancti-johannis, Archibuteo sancti-johannis, 

 A. lagopus. 

 Rough-legged Buzzard, Black Hawk. 

 Kirtland, Ohio Geol. Surv., 1838, 161, 178. 



This large hawk occurs only during the winter, when it 



