FALC0N1D/E. 55 



[17.] 4. Buteo (Circus) cyaneus ? var. ? Americanus. American Hen- 



Harrier. 



Genus. Buteo. Ray. Sub-genus. Circus. Antiq,. 



The Ring-tailed Hawk. (Pygargus accipiter, Canadensis.) Edwards, pi. 107. Female from Hudson's Bay. 



Falco spadiceus. Forst. Phil, Trans., lxii., p. 383, No. 2. ? Yearling from Hudson's Bay. 



Moor Buzzard, var. A. Bay Falcon. Lath. Syn., i., p. 54, No. 34.? Forster's specimen. 



Moor Buzzard, var. B. White-rumped Bay F. Idem, i., p. 54, No. 34. Young; described from a drawing 



made at Hudson's Bay. 

 Hudson's Bay Ring-tail. Idem, p. 91, sp. 76. 1 



Ring-tail. Penn. Arct. ZooL, ii. p. 209, sp. 106. f From Hudson's Bay. 

 Falco cyaneus, var. (3. Lath., Ind., p. 40, sp. 94. j 



Marsh Hawk. {Falco uliginosus.) Wilson, vi., p. 67, pi. 51, f. 1. Young. Pennsylvania. 

 Falco uliginosus. Sabine. Frankl. Journ., p. 671. Young female. Hudson's Bay. 

 Falco cyaneus. Bonap. Orn., ii., p. 30, pi. 12. Adult male. 

 Annooch-kee-nsepeek-quaeshew. {Snake Hunter?) Cree Indians. 



Plate xxix. Male. 



This bird takes its prey from the ground, hunts long and diligently for it 

 on the wing, and quarters the district regularly, so as to survey every spot, 

 wheeling backwards and forwards in easy, graceful circles, with little seeming 

 effort or napping of the wings. It is wary, but not timid, — avoiding the sports- 

 man, but not easily driven away from its hunting-grounds. It is a common species 

 on the plains of the Saskatchewan, seldom less than five or six being in sight at a 

 time, each keeping to a particular beat until it has completely examined it. Their 

 flight was in general low ; but although Mr. Drummond and I watched them for 

 hours at a time, and lay as still on the grass as possible, they invariably rose out 

 of gunshot as they passed over our heads, and the specimens were procured only 

 by lying in ambush near the nest. Notwithstanding they appeared to be almost 

 constantly on the wing, we seldom saw them carry anything away ; and they 

 seemed on the whole to be less successful hunters than the little Falco sparverius, 

 or the lazy Buzzards, that sat watching for their prey on the bough of a tree. A 

 small green snake is very plentiful in that quarter, and forms a considerable por- 

 tion of the food of this bird, — whence its Cree name of the " Snake Hunter." 

 The nests that we observed were built on the ground, by the sides of small lakes, 

 of moss, grass, feathers, and hair, and contained from three to five eggs, of a 

 smaller size than those of the domestic fowl, but similar in shape, and having a 

 bluish-white colour, without spots. The eggs measured an inch and three-quarters 



