C. CYANEUS HUDSONIUS : MARSH HAWK, OR HARRIER. lOI 



Family FALCONID^: Hawks. 



MARSH HAWK, OR HARRIER. 

 Circus cyaneus hudsonius {L.) Schl. 



Chars. Face with an imperfect disc, somewhat as in the Owls, to 

 which this genus is related. Bill weak, with a lobe on the cut- 

 ting edge of the upper mandible, but no tooth. Wings, tail, and 

 feet long for the bulk of the bird ; the tarsi are scutellate before 

 and behind, and twice as long as the middle toe ; nostrils oval. 

 Plumage of the old male remarkably different from that of the 

 female and young. Above, pale ashy blue, nearly unvaried ; 

 below nearly white ; the quills blackish toward the end. Upper 

 tail coverts conspicuously white on both sexes, at all ages, 

 female and young, above, dark brown streaked with reddish- 

 brown, below, the reverse of this ; tail banded with these colors. 

 Length of male, i6.oo-i8.oo; extent, 40.00; wing, 14.00-15.00; 

 tail, 8.00-9.00 ; female about 2 inches longer, and other dimen- 

 sions correspondingly greater. 



The Diurnal Birds of Prey, including all kinds of 

 Hawks, Harriers, Kites, Falcons, Eagles, and Buzzards 

 (not the Turkey Buzzard), are well represented in New 

 England, where no fewer than seventeen species or 

 varieties are found — three of them of rare or excep- 

 tional occurrence, the remaining fourteen more or less 

 abundant and generally distributed. The first species 

 we present is one of the " ignoble " hawks, of com- 

 paratively little spirit and ambition, and altogether 

 little above the level of a " mousing owl." The Harrier 

 flies at the most humble game, feeding chiefly upon field- 

 mice, shrews, frogs, toads, and insects, and may usually 



