80 MARSH HAWK. 



long and slender ; nostril large, triangular, this, and the base of the 

 bill, thickly covered with strong curving hairs, that rise from the 

 space between the eye and bill, arching over the base of the bill and 

 cere — this is a particular characteristic ; bill blue, black at the end ; 

 eye dark hazel ; cartilage overhanging the eye, and also the eyelid, 

 bluish green ; spot under the eye, and line from the front over it, 

 brownish white ; head above, and back, dark glossy chocolate brown, 

 the former slightly seamed with bright ferruginous ; scapulars spotted 

 with the same under the surface ; lesser coverts, and band of the wing, 

 here and there edged with the same ; greater coverts and primaries 

 tipped with whitish ; quills deep brown at the extreme half, some of the 

 outer ones hoary on the exterior edge ; all the primaries yellowish white 

 on the inner vanes and upper half, also barred on the inner vanes 

 with black ; tail long, extending three inches beyond the wings, rounded 

 at the end, and of a pale sorrel color, crossed by four broad bars of 

 very dark brown, the two middle feathers excepted, which are barred 

 with deep and lighter shades of chocolate brown ; chin pale ferruginous ; 

 round the neck a collar of bright rust color ; breast, belly and vent, 

 pale rust, shafted with brown; femorals long, tapering, and of the 

 same pale rust tint ; legs feathered near an inch below the knee. This 

 was a female. The male differs chiefly in being rather lighter, and 

 somewhat less. 



This Hawk is particularly serviceable to the rice fields of the southern 

 states, by the havoc it makes among the clouds of Rice Buntings, that 

 spread such devastation among that grain, in its early stage. As it 

 sails low and swiftly, over the surface of the field, it keeps the flocks in 

 perpetual fluctuation, and greatly interrupts their depredations. The 

 planters consider one Marsh Hawk to be equal to several negroes, for 

 alarming the Rice-birds. Formerly the Marsh Hawk used to be numer- 

 ous along the Schuylkill and Delaware, during the time the seeds of the 

 Zizania were ripening, and the Reed-birds abundant ; but they have of 

 late years become less numerous here. 



Pennant considers the " strong, thick, and short legs" of this species 

 as specific distinctions from the Ring-tailed Hawk ; the legs, however, 

 are long and slender ; and a Marsh Hawk such as he has described, with 

 strong, thick and short legs, is nowhere to be found in the United States. 



Note. — J^Iontagu, in the " Supplement to the Ornithological Diction- 

 ary," an excellent work, positively asserts, that the F. eyaneus, and the 

 F. pygargus, are the same species. This opinion the same writer had 

 given in a paper, published in the ninth volume of the Linnean Trans- 

 actions. If this be the fact, the name oi pygargus must be retained for 

 the species, it being that which was given to it by Linnaeus, in the tenth 

 edition of the Systema Naturae, published in the year 1758. — G. Ord. 



