226 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
a 
blackish brown, each feather tipped or bordered terminally with rusty or ochra- 
ceous; head and neck streaked with the same; superciliary stripe and lower parts 
ochraceous (varying to buffy whitish), spotted or striped with dusky. Length 
16.00-18.00, extent 44.00-46.00, wing 12.90-14.25, tail 7.20-8.50, culmen 1.00-1.10. 
Nest built on top of bushes or tall rank grasses in open marshes. Eggs usually 2, 
1.75 x 1.46, blotched, marbled, and stained with various shades of brown on a paler 
(sometimes bluish white) ground-color. Hab. Whole of tropical America, except 
part of West Indies; south to Argentine Republic and Ecuador, north to Florida 
and Atlantic coast of Mexico......... 330. R. sociabilis (VIEILL.). Everglade Kite. 
Genus CIRCUS Lacépipz. (Page 222, pl. LXVIL,, fig. 1.) 
Species. 
Adult male: Head, neck, chest, and upper parts uniform light bluish gray, the 
occiput darker and streaked with whitish, tinged with rusty ; longer quills blackish 
toward tips; upper tail-coverts plain white; tail bluish gray, mottled with white 
toward base, narrowly tipped with white, crossed near end by a broad blackish 
band, and, anterior to this, by five to seven narrower and less distinct dusky 
‘bands; the inner webs whitish, with the bands more distinct, and sometimes tinged 
with rusty; under surface of wing (except terminal third, or more, of quills), and 
lower parts from breast backward, white, the larger under wing-coverts and lower 
parts with more or less numerous transverse (usually cordate) spots of rusty or 
brown. Adult female: Above dusky brown, the head and neck streaked, the lesser 
wing-coverts spotted, and feathers of rump edged, with rusty; upper tail-coverts 
plain white; tail brown, paler at tip, and crossed by six or seven very regular and 
distinct bands of blackish ; the brownish spaces becoming gradually paler and more 
rusty to outer feathers, which are more ochraceous; sides of head light dull buffy, 
with a dusky stripe behind eye; feathers of “ facial disk” buff, each with a median 
streak of dark brown; chin, throat, and lower parts generally, dull buffy whitish, 
varying to deeper dull buffy, striped (except on chin and throat) with brown, the 
stripes becoming gradually much narrower posteriorly. Young: Above blackish 
brown, the head and neck streaked and lesser wing-coverts spotted with deep 
rusty; upper tail-coverts white, tinged more or less with ochraceous; tail crossed 
by four broad bands of black, the interspaces being dark brown on middle feathers, 
changing gradually to ochraceous on outer feathers; ear-coverts uniform rich dark 
brown; feathers of “facial disk” dark brown, broadly edged with rufous; lower 
parts rich rusty ochraceous, growing gradually paler posteriorly, the breast and 
sides narrowly and (usually) indistinctly streaked with darker, but elsewhere im- 
maculate. Downy young: Entirely pale cinnamon-buffy, tinged with grayish on 
back, and becoming almost white on lower parts. Length 19.50-24.00, wing 12.90- 
16.00, tail 8.80-10.50, tarsus 2.85-3.25, middle toe 1.20-1.55. Nest on ground, in 
meadows, usually near ponds or marshes. Hygs 3-8, 1.81 x 1.41, white, or bluish 
white, usually plain, but often more or less spotted or blotched with pale brown. 
Hab. Whole of North America; south, in winter, to Panama, Bahamas, and Cuba. 
331. C. hudsonius (Liny.). Marsh Hawk. 
