90 FALCONIDA. 
and habits, this bird bears some resemblance to the Owls. 
It flies slowly, sits for a long time on the bough of a tree, 
watching for mice, frogs, &c., and is often seen skimming 
over swampy pieces of ground, and hunting for its prey by 
the subdued daylight, which illuminates even the midnight 
hours in high parallels of latitude. Wilson observes, 
that in Pennsylvania it is in the habit of coursing over the 
meadows long after the sun has set. It is fitted for this 
nocturnal chase by the softness of its plumage, which con- 
tributes to render its flight noiseless, like that of an Owl.” 
The whole length of the specimen figured was twenty- 
four inches ; the beak black; the cere and irides yellow; 
the top of the head, the cheeks, nape, and upper part of the 
neck, pale buff, each feather streaked or patched in the centre 
with dark brown; the back, wings, wing-ccverts, and rump, 
clove brown, some of the feathers edged with fawn colour ; 
primaries brownish black, the fourth the longest, the first 
and seventh equal in length; upper tail-coverts buffy 
white, with an angular brown patch near the end of each 
feather ; upper surface of the tail-feathers buffy white on 
the proximal half of their length, the distal half brown. 
The chin, throat, and breast, fawn colour, tinged with 
ferruginous, streaked and patched with brown; the belly 
almost uniform clove brown ; thighs and tarsi to the junc- 
tion of the toes covered with feathers of fawn colour 
spotted with brown: the toes with three broad scales at 
the base of the claw, yellow; the claws or nails black : 
under surface of -the wing-primaries to the end of the 
broad part of the inner web white, from the emargination 
brownish black: under tail-coverts uniform buffy white ; 
proximal half of the under urfaces of the tail-feathers white, 
the distal half greyish brown. 
