168 NESTS AND EGGS OP 



are deposited. The nests are built in tall, rank grass and bushes ; es- 

 pecially in the saw-grasses, about a foot below the tops, just so as to be 

 out of sight, and the nests are usually composed of the same material ; 

 they measure about a foot in diameter, with a cavity three inches deep. 

 Mr. H. B. Bailey describes a set of three eggs, taken in the Ever- 

 glades, March i6, by E. W. Montreuil; their sizes are 1.91x1.50, i.8ox 

 1. 51, 1.80 X 1.45; the color of one is light brown, nearly obscured by 

 large blotches of dark and reddish-brown ; another has a dirty-white 

 ground color, with spots and blotches of various shades of brown, 

 which become smaller and fewer at the smaller end. It resembles the 

 common varieties of eggs of the European Sparrow Hawk, Accipiter 

 nisus. The third is of a greenish-white, over the smaller end are 

 scrawls, lines and a few spots of light and dark brown.* 



331. Circus hudsonius (Linn). [43°-] 



Marsh Hairk. 



Hab. Whole of North America, south in winter to Panama, the Bahamas and Cuba. 



The Marsh Hawk, Blue Hawk, or Harrier, is distributed through- 

 out the whole of North America. It is one of the most abundant 

 and widely-diffused of our birds, and breeds from the fur country of 

 Hudson's Bay to Texas, and from Nova Scotia to Oregon and Cali- 

 fornia. It is found especially in regions covered by bushes, small 

 trees, rank grass, swamp prairies or marshy places. Here the nest 

 may be found, placed on the ground, which is only a collection of 

 twigs and hay, but from three to seven inches in height and a foot 

 or more in diameter. Sometimes the nests are of large proportions, 

 which is the result of nesting in the same spot for a number of years. 

 The eggs are frequently laid on a bed of green moss, with the material 

 arranged in a circular form. The bird may often be seen during the 

 spring and summer months sweeping slowly over meadows and bot- 

 tom lands in pursuit of gophers, mice, birds, grasshoppers and 

 large insects. It can readily be recognized by the entirely pure white 

 upper tail-coverts ; the male above bluish-ash, whitening below ; the 

 female above dark umber-brown. 



Mr. S. F. Rathbun records a set of seven eggs taken June 14, at 

 Dunnville, Ontario, and Mr. Norris has a finely marked set of seven 

 in his cabinet. 



Marsh Hawks frequently begin to incubate with the first egg and 

 the young are hatched at intervals, after the manner of the cuckoos. 

 Fresh eggs may be found from the first of May to the 15th or 20th of 

 June, according to locality. 



'■' Auk, I, p. 95. 



