NIGHT AND DAY HUNTERS 195 



hawks, among other birds, that the Audubon societies 

 might well use as a tract. 



The Marsh Hawk 



Length — ^Male 19 inches; female 22 inches. 



Male — ^Upper parts gray or bluish ash, washed with brown- 

 ish; 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. 



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 buflf, widely 

 streaked on breast and more narrowly underneath with 

 dusky. The younger the bird the heavier its blackish 

 and rufous coloration, many phases of plumage being 

 shown before emerging into the gray and white adult 

 males. 



Range — ^North America in general; nests throughout 

 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 manmials, frogs, and the larger 

 insects that hide among the grass are what it is ever seek- 

 ing as it swerves this way and that, turns, goes over its 

 course, "quartering" the groimd like a well-trained dog on 



