56 
ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. 
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 prima- 
ries, 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 
characteristic mark of this bird, is a belt, or girdle, of very 
dark brown, passing round the belly just below the breast, 
and reaching under the wings to the rump ; head, very broad, 
and bill uncommonly small, suited to the humility of its prey. 
The female is much darker, both above and below, parti- 
cularly in the belt, or girdle, which is nearly black ; the tail- 
coverts are also spotted with chocolate ; she is also something 
larger.* 
* From their different form, JButeo has been now adopted for the Buzzards. 
They will also rank in two divisions ; those with clothed, and those with bare 
tarsi. The American species belonging to the first, will be our present one, 
Wilson’s Falco niger, and Audubon’s F. Harlanii ;* to the second, Wilson’s 
B. borealis, hyemalis, and the common European Buzzard, which was met 
with in the last overland arctic expedition. The Buzzards are sluggish and 
inactive in their habits ; their bills, feet, and claws, comparatively weak ; the 
form heavy, and the plumage more soft and downy, as if a smooth flight 
was to supply in part their want of activity. Their general flight is 
in sweeping circles, after mounting from their resting-place. They watch 
their prey either from the air, or on some tree qr eminence, and sometimes 
pounce upon it when sailing near the ground. When satiated, they again 
return to their perch, and if undisturbed, will remain in one situation until 
* See description of F. Niger. 
