2904 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 
with the ring-tail of Europe, Wilson would not take upon 
himself to pronounce, as he has left to his bird the distinctive 
name of Falco uliginosus ; though he positively states that, 
in his opinion, they are but one species, and even rejects as 
false, and not existing, the only character on which the specific 
distinction was based, that of the American having “strong, | 
thick, and short legs,” instead of having them long and slender. 
For want of opportunity, however, of actually comparing 
specimens from both continents, he could choose no other 
course than the one he has followed ; and so great appears to 
have been the deference of ornithologists for this extraordinary 
man, that, while they have unhesitatingly quoted as synony- 
mous with the European hen-harrier the African specimens 
described by Le Vaillant, and even the various nominal species 
created or adopted by Vieillot as North American, the Falco 
uliginosus of former authors has been respected, probably, as 
the marsh-hawk of Wilson! But the latter is not, more than 
the others, entitled to be admitted as distinct, being merely 
the present in its youthful dress, 
The hen-harrier belongs to the subgenus C?rcus, which in 
English we shall call harrier, the name of buzzard being ap- 
propriated to the Buteones. Though perfectly well marked in 
the typical species, such as this, the group to which our bird 
belongs passes insensibly into others, but especially into that 
called Buteo, some even of the North American species being 
intermediate between them. Whenever the groups of falcons 
shall be elevated to the rank of genera, it will perhaps be found 
expedient to unite Circus and Buteo, as they do not differ much 
more from each other than our two sections of hawks—those 
with long and slender legs, and those with short stout legs, 
Astur and Sparvius of authors, the line of demarcation being 
quite as difficult to be drawn. 
The harriers are distinguished in their tribe by their weak, 
much compressed bill, destitute of a tooth or sharp process, 
but with a strongly marked lobe; their short and bristly cere; 
their long, slender, and scutellated tarsi ; their slender toes, of 

