no 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
neath white without spots ; the quills black towards the end.— 
Female and young dark brown ; beneath pale yellowish-brown 
with dark spots ; the wings on the under side banded with black 
and white ; tail, except the 2 middle dusky feathers, barred with 
blackish and pale brown. 
This species is common to the northern and temper- 
ate, as well as the warmer parts of the old and new 
continents, being met with in Europe, Africa, South 
America, and the West Indies. In the winter season it 
extends its peregrinations from Hudson’s Bay to the 
southern parts of the United States, frequenting chiefly 
open, low, and marshy situations, over which it sweeps 
or skims along, at a little distance usually from the 
ground, in quest of mice, small birds, frogs, lizards, and 
other reptiles, which it often selects by twilight, as well 
as in the open day ; and at times, pressed by hunger, it 
joins the Owls, and seeks out its prey even by moonlight. 
Their propensity for marsh birds renders them very ser- 
viceable tos&he rice plantations of the southern states, 
over which they frequently hover, and thin and rout the 
destructive ranks of the Rice Buntings while feeding 
among this grain. Instances have been known in Eng- 
land, in which this bird has carried his temerity so far 
as to pursue the same game with the armed fowler, and 
even snatch it from his grasp, after calmly waiting for it 
to be shot, and without even betraying timidity at the 
report of the gun. The nest of this species is made on 
the ground, in swampy woods, or among rushes, occa- 
sionally also under the protection of rocky precipices ; and 
is formed of sticks, reeds, leaves, straw, and similar mate- 
rials heaped together, and finished with a lining of feath- 
ers, hair, or other soft substances. The eggs are 4 or 5, 
of a dirty bluish white and without spots. In the 
F. cineraceus, so nearly related to this species, the eggs 
are of a pure white. When their young are approached, 
