88 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and leaves. The eggs are 3 to 4 in number, dull buffy white in ground 

 color, spotted and blotched with yellowish brown and cinnamon brown, 

 about 2.12 by 1.6 inches in dimensions. Eight sets of eggs in the Smith- 

 sonian collection from Hamilton and Herkimer counties, N. Y., were all 

 taken between May 19 and June 15, May 25 being the usual date for 

 northern New York. Chapman gives April 18 as the date for eggs near 

 New York City. 



Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis (Gmelin) 

 Rough-legged Hawk 



Plates 43 and 48 



Falco s. johannis Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1788. 1:273 

 Buteo sancti-joannis DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1S44. pt 2, p. 7, fig. 3 

 Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3 . 

 1910. p. 161. No. 347a 

 Archibuteo, chief buzzard; lagopus, Gr., hare-footed; sancti-johannis, of St John 



Description. Legs feathered to the toes; base of tail white; body color 

 varies from brownish gray above and white or buffy white below streaked 

 with dusky, forming a more or less complete broad abdominal band, to 

 a nearly uniform black; cere and toes yellow; iris brown. Light phase: 

 Upper parts fuscous or grayish brown, margined with whitish and buft'y; 

 under parts varying from white to ocherotts buff, spotted and streaked 

 with blackish, forming a dark band in the abdominal region; inner webs 

 of primaries and under surfaces of wing feathers white toward their bases; 

 the tips of the wings black; under wing coverts in the carpal region form 

 a conspicuous black patch; wing and tail feathers barred with gray and 

 whitish. The bird gives the appearance of white and black in large patches, 

 when flying. Dark phase: Varies from slightly darker than the normal 

 to a uniform sooty black, except the base of tail, a portion of the bases 

 of the wing feathers, slight marblings or bars on tail and wings, and a small 

 frontlet of whitish. These white markings, however, do not show except 

 when the bird is closely examined or, partly, when flying. 



Length 21-23; extent 52-56; wing 15-17; tail 9-10. 



Distribution. The Rough-legged hawk inhabits the northern portion 

 of the boreal zone from Newfoundland and central British Cokimbia to 

 the limit of trees, and wanders southward in v;inter over most of the United 

 States. In New York it is a winter visitor of irregular occurreiice, rather 



