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THE ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. 



Fjlco lagopus, Gmel. 

 PLATE CLXVI. Male. 



Should the bird known in Europe by tiie above name, and that found 

 in the United States, prove to be identical, I should not be a little sur- 

 prised, as I consider our Rough-legged Falcon and the Falco niger of 

 WitsoN to be of the same species, tiie diiFerence in tlieir colour being 

 merely indicative of a difference in age. 



While at Boston, in the winter of 1832, I offered premiums for biriis 

 of this family, and received as many as eight at one time, of which not 

 one resembled another in the colour of the plumage, although they were 

 precisely similar in form and internal structure. The females were si- 

 milar to the males, but were distinguished by their superior size. These 

 eight birds, and some others which I examined, were all shot on the 

 same salt marshes, within about five miles of the city. Their flight 

 was precisely similar, as were their usual attitudes, either when perched 

 on the branches of trees, stakes, or stalks of salt grass-hay, or when 

 alighted on the banks of the ditches to watch for their prey. '1 he 

 "darker the bird the more shy it was; when pursued it would fly at a 

 much greater elevation and farther off than the light coloured indivi- 

 duals ; and I feel confident, from my knowledge of birds, that this diffe- 

 rence as to shyness arose from the circumstance, that the dark birds were 

 the oldest. When listening to their disagreeable squealing notes, I could 

 perceive no difference whatever. All these Hawks arrived in the marshes 

 within a day or two of each other, in straggling parties of four or five, 

 and the individuals composing these parties remained near each other as 

 if retaining a mutual attachment. These and similar observations, made 

 in other places from the Bay of Fundy to the marshes and meadows in 

 the maritime districts of the State of Maryland, have convinced me that 

 these Hawks form only one species. 



The Rough-legged Hawk seldom goes farther south along our Atlan- 

 tic coast than the Eastern portions of North Carolina, nor have I ever 

 seen it to the west of the Alleghanies. It is a sluggish bird, and con- 

 fines itself to the meadows and low grounds bordering the rivers and 



