Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



Marsh Hawk 



(Circus Hudsonius) 



Called also: MARSH HARRIER: BLUE HAWK; MOUSE 



HAWK 



Length — Male 19 inches; female 22 inches. 



Male — Upper parts gray or bluish ash, washed with brownish ; 

 upper tail coverts pure white ; silver gray tail feathers with 

 five or six dusky bars, the outer primaries darkest; upper 

 breast pearl gray, shading into white underneath, where 

 the plumage is sparsely spotted with rufous. Hooked bill, 

 and feet black. 



Female and Young — Upper parts dark amber; the head and neck 

 streaked, other parts margined or spotted with reddish 

 brown; upper tail coverts white; middle tail feathers 

 barred with gray and black, others barred with pale yellow 

 and black. Under parts rusty buff, widely streaked on 

 breast and more narrowly underneath with dusky. The 

 younger the bird the heavier its blackish and rufous colora- 

 tion, many phases of plumage being shown before emerging 

 into the gray and white adult males. 



Range — North America in general, to Panama and Cuba; nests 

 throughout North American range; winters in southern 

 half of it. 



Season — Summer resident at northern half of range. 



Close along the ground skims the marsh hawk, since field 

 mice and other small mammals, frogs, and the larger insects 

 that hide among the grass are what it is ever seeking as it 

 swerves this way and that, turns, goes over its course, "quar- 

 tering " the ground like a well trained dog on the scent of a 

 hare — the peculiarity of flight that has earned it the hare-hound 

 or harrier's name. A few easy strokes in succession, then a 

 graceful sail on motionless wings, make its flight appear leis- 

 urely, even slow and spiritless, as compared with the impetuous 

 dash of a hawk that pursues feathered game; hence this is counted 

 an "ignoble" hawk in the scornful eyes of falconers used to the 

 noble sport of hawking. Open stretches of country, wide 

 fields, salt and fresh water marshes, ponds, and the banks of 

 small streams, whose sides are not thickly wooded, since trees 

 simply impede this low flier's progress, are its favorite hunting 

 grounds; and it will sometimes alight on a low stump, or in the 



3" 



