44 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



" The Rough-legged Hawk seldom goes further south along our 

 Atlantic Coast than the eastern portions of North Carolina; nor 

 have I ever seen it west of the Alleghanies. It is a sluggish bird, 

 and confines itself to the meadows and low grounds bordering the 

 rivers and salt marshes along our bays and inlets. In such places, 

 you may see it perched on a stake, where it remains for hours at a 

 time, unless some wounded bird comes in sight, when it sails after 

 it, and secures it without manifesting much swiftness of flight. It 

 feeds principally on moles, mice, and other small quadrupeds, and 

 never attacks a duck on the wing, although now and then it pursues 

 a wounded one. When not alarmed, it usually flies low and 

 sedately, and does not exhibit any of the courage and vigor so con- 

 spicuous in most other hawks, suffering thousands -of birds to pass 

 without pursuing them. The greatest feat I have seen it perform 

 was scrambling at the edge of the water to secure a lethargic 

 frog. 



" They alight on trees to roost, but appear so hungry or indolent 

 at all times, that they seldom retire to rest until after dusk. 

 Their large eyes, indeed, seem to indicate their possession of the 

 faculty of seeing at that late hour. I have frequently put up one 

 that seemed watching for food at the edge of a ditch, long after 

 sunset. Whenever an opportunity offer, they eat to excess, 

 and, like the Turkey Buzzards and Carrion Crows, disgorge 

 their food, to enable themselves to fly off. The species is more 

 nocturnal in its habits than any other hawk found in the United 

 States." 



I have never met with the nest of this bird, and know- 

 but little of its breeding habits. It does not breed in New 

 England, or, if it does, only very rarely, preferring the more 

 northern sections of the continent. Two eggs in my collec- 

 tion, from Canada, are of the following description. Their 

 ground-color is a dirty bluish-white, which is covered more 

 or less thickly on different parts of their surface with 

 obscure spots and blotches of different shades of brown- 

 ish-ochre and faint-umber. They are broadly ovate in 

 form, and are 2.87 by 1.75 inch and 2.87 by 1.63 inch in 

 dimensions. 



