650 



SYSTEM A TIG SYNOPSIS. — BAPTORES — A CCIPITBES. 



A. ferrugineus is highly distinctive of the latter. Length of a ? , 22.00; extent 54.00; wing 

 17.50; tail 9.00; iris light brown; bill mostly blackish-blue, cere i)ale greenish-yellow, feet 

 duU yellow, claws blue-black. This is about an average size ; the ^ averages smaller ; wing 

 about 16.00, etc. The name adopted, it must be observed, is not intended to discriminate the 

 black from the ordinary plumage, but to separate the American bird subspecifically from the 

 European. N. Am., at large, common, especially in fertile, well-watered regions, as those of 



Fig. 382. — Kougli-Iegged ]>uzzar(l, i iial 



(Fii)iu Brelim.) 



the Atlantic seaboard ; a large, heavy, and sonunvliat sluggish hawk, haunting meadows and 

 marshes, to some extent crepuscular in liabits, of low, easy, and almost noiseless flight; prey- 

 ing upon insignificant quarry, particularly small rodent and insectivorous mammals, reptUcs, 

 batrachians and insects. Nest usually in large ti-ees, but frequently on a ledge of rocks or the 

 edge of a cut-bank ; a bulky mass of interlaced sticks, with softer matted material of miscel- 

 laneous kinds ; eggs 3-5, laid late in May and in .Tune, measuring 2.10-2 25 in length, by 

 1.75-1.80 in breadth; varying in color from diugy whitish with scarcely any marking, or but 



