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THE FAUNA OF MONTANA TERRITORY. - 597 
raise their young in the higher forests, and the young just 
began to appear in the end of August. 
Marsu Hawk (Circus Hudsonius). The Marsh Hawk is 
probably the most universally diffused hawk on the conti- 
nent, and is seen almost daily at all seasons, where there are 
open prairies or meadows and not much population. 
Gotpen Eaeie (Aguila Canadensis). Though I did not 
see the Golden Eagle in the Rocky Mountains, so near as to 
be sure of the species, it evidently inhabits them, as I saw 
several young ones at Fort Benton, which had been trapped 
by the Indians soon after they could fly, and were doubtless 
raised in the mountains. They probably find prey more easily 
caught on the Great Plains, and have not yet been observed 
west of the mountains where the White-headed Eagle is so 
abundant, while the latter is quite scarce on the plains, 
though sometimes seen. 
- Fisu Hawk (Pandion Carolinensis). Not seen near the 
muddy waters of the Missouri below Fort Benton, but com- 
mon, and its nests numerous on the rivers, and their branches 
from there westward, where it finds an abundance of deli- 
cious trout and other fish in the clear streams. 
Witson’s Ow (Otus Wilsonianus). A specimen was 
_ knocked down by a soldier with a stick near Bitterroot ferry, 
Sept. 4th, and I rode close by one sitting in a bush near 
Ceur d’Alefie Mission, on the 15th, so that it seems to be 
generally distributed across the continent, being common also 
in the bushes along streams on the plains. It seems indeed 
to shun dense forests, not having been observed by me west 
of the Cascade Mountains. 
YELLOW-BILLED CucKoo (Cocygus Americanus). 
this Cuckoo near Fort Benton, but not in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, although it may have left for the south when I reached 
there (Aug. 15), as it departs early. I should expect to 
d it a month earlier, as Nuttall “met with it in Oregon.” 
(Mammal, I, 652.) 
Harris’s WooprecKeR (Picus Harristi), and GAIRDNER’S 
I saw 
