402 MARSH4HAWK. 
alarming the Rice Birds.” Now, good Reader, my friend Joun Bacu- 
mMaN, who has resided more than twenty years in South Carolina, and 
who is a constant student of nature, and perhaps more especially atten- 
tive to the habits of birds, informs me that the Marsh Hawk is propor- 
tionally rare in that State, and that it only makes its appearance there 
after the Rice Birds have left the country for the south, and retires at 
the approach of spring, before they have arrived. 
European writers have generally considered our Marsh Hawk as 
larger than their Circus cyaneus ; but this opinion must have originated 
from a want of specimens for comparison, and perhaps also a want of 
books on which one might depend. Were all ornithological works 
characterized by the accuracy and detail to be found in those of my 
friend Wriit1am Macciuiivray, the case might be different. The 
measurements which he has taken from recent specimens correspond 
with those which I also have taken from individuals newly killed, as 
nearly as is usual in birds of other species. Indeed, should you mea- 
sure as accurately as possible a hundred specimens of any bird as large 
as our Marsh Hawk, I am persuaded you would not find many of them 
to agree in all their proportions. Instead of the American exceeding 
the European )ird in size, I think it will generally be found to be 
as nearly equal as possible. 
Fatco cyaneus and F, pyearcus, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 126. 
Fatco cyaneus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 39.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds 
of United States, p. 33. 
Marsu Hawk, Fatco uxternosus, Wils, Amer. Ornith. vol. vi. p. 67, pl. 1, fig. 1., 
young female. 
Fatco cyaneus, Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 30, pl. xi. fig. 1., male. 
Buteo (Circus) cyangus? var? Americanus, American Hen-Harrier, 
Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 55. 
Hen-Harrier, or Marsu Hawr, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 109. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCLVI. Fig. 1. 
Bill short, compressed. Upper mandible with its dorsal line a little - 
tumid at the base, sloping to beyond the cere, then decurved in the 
fourth of a circle, the sides sloping, towards the end a little convex, 
she edge with a festoon a little anterior to the nostril, the tip acute, 
concave beneath. Lower mandible with the angle broad, the dorsal 
