BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 23 
been confounded amidst the chaotic indications of the 
Present. 
Even Wilson was not free from the error which had 
Prevailed for so long a period in scientific Europe, that 
e ring-tail and hen-harrier were two species. Though 
? ( 'd n °t publish a figure of the present in the adult 
P-iunage of the male, he was well acquainted with it as 
an inhabitant of the Southern States; for there can be 
, 0 uoubt that it is the much desired blue hawk which 
e was so anxious to procure; the only land bird he 
» ended to add to his Ornithology, or at least the only 
°?? l°ft registered in his posthumous list. It was 
th* 6 l k° cause be " ; 's not aware of this fact, and 
ougiit that no blue hawk existed In America corres- 
ponding to the European hen-harrier, that Mr Sabine, 
e Appendix to Franklin’s Expedition [as quoted in 
ynonyms,] persisted in declaring that the marsh-hawk 
as a distinct species peculiar to America, of which he 
T Hudson's Bay ring-tail to be the young. 
<! differences which he detected on comparing it with 
diff . 10 P eau ring-tail, must have been owing to the 
1 eien * s h lte of plumage of his specimen of this ultra- 
angealde species. If, however, he had not mentioned 
C0 jl 8 . m °rely, as bringing it nearer to the ash- 
beli ii° n 0f M( ; nta S"e, We might, be inclined to 
. lat *de specimen lie examined was indeed a 
L_ j " u ‘d that species, which, though as yet unoh- 
Ameri’ca ma A* a n er a11 ’ l )ossib| V be found in North 
A„, • events, Wilson’s, and the numerous 
n-itimi iv s P°*? mens that have passed under our exami- 
a o ’ T 311 y° un fi hen-harriers, 
the li r.n Rnrl; 11 ® state 4> ,,b at the error of considering 
Br ", 1. er alM . iTng-tail as different species liad 
tint ah ° r ^ uro P e » it is hut just to mention, 
that Aldrovandq Bnsson, Ray, and others of the older 
li,; u,rs * were perfectly in accordance with nature on 
P“ lnb was, perhaps, with Linin'-, or at least 
' Hi Huffon, Grnelin, Pennant, and Latham himself, 
LaH a Rewards corrected it, that the error originated, 
niam, confident of his own observations, and those 
