550 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — BAPTORES— ACCIPITBES. 



A. fenugmeus 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 hlaokish-blue, cere pale 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. — Uoagh-legged Buzzard, J jiat. hize. (From Brehm.) 



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

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

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

 batrachians and insects. Nest usually in largo trees, 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 June, measuring 2.10-2 25 in length, by 

 1.7B-1-80 in breadth ; varying in color from dingy whitish with scarcely any marking, or but 



