56 ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. 



and several others of the same association have been obtained 

 and examined during the present winter. On comparing 

 these with Pennant's description referred to above, they cor- 

 respond so exactly, that no doubts remain of their being the 

 same species. Towards the beginning of April, these birds 

 abandon this part of the country, and retire to the north to 

 breed. 



They are common, during winter, in the lower parts of 

 Maryland, and numerous in the extensive meadows below 

 Newark, New Jersey ; are frequent along the Connecticut 

 River ; and, according to Pennant, inhabit England, Norway, 

 and Lapmark. Their flight is slow and heavy. They are 

 often seen coursing over the surface of the meadows, long 

 after sunset, many times in pairs. They generally roost on 

 the tall detached trees that rise from these low grounds ; and 

 take their stations, at day-break, near a ditch, bank, or hay 

 stack, for hours together, watching, with patient vigilance, 

 for the first unlucky frog, mouse, or lizard, to make its 

 appearance. The instant one of these is descried, the hawk, 

 sliding into the air, and taking a circuitous course along the 

 surface, sweeps over the spot, and in an instant has his prey 

 grappled and sprawling in the air. 



The rough-legged hawk measures twenty-two inches in 

 length, and four feet two inches in extent ; cere, sides of the 

 mouth, and feet, rich yellow ; legs, feathered to the toes, with 

 brownish yellow plumage, streaked with brown ; femorals, the 

 same ; toes, comparatively short ; claws and bill, blue black ; 

 iris of the eye, bright amber ; upper part of the head, pale 

 ochre, streaked with brown ; back and wings, chocolate, each 

 feather edged with bright ferruginous ; first four primaries, 

 nearly black about the tips, edged externally with silvery in 

 some lights ; rest of the quills, dark chocolate ; lower side, 

 and interior vanes, white; tail-coverts, white; tail, rounded, 

 white, with a broad band of dark brown near the end, and 

 tipt with white ; body below, and breast, light yellow ochre, 

 blotched and streaked with chocolate. What constitutes a 



