BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 
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in English we shall call harrier, the name of buzzard 
being appropriated to the Buleones Though perfectly 
well marked in the typical species, such as this, the 
group to which our bird belongs passes insensibly into 
others, but especially into that called Buteo> some even 
of the North American species being intermediate 
between them. Whenever the groups of falcons shall 
be elevated to the rank of genera, it will perhaps be 
found expedient to unite circus and buteo> as they do 
not differ much more from each other than our two 
sections of hawks ; those with long and slender legs, 
and those with short stout legs, Astur and Sparvius of 
authors, the line of demarcation being quite as difficult 
to be drawn. 
The harriers are distinguished in their tribe by their 
weak, much compressed bill, destitute of a tooth or 
sharp process, but with a strongly marked lobe ; their 
short and bristly cere ; their long, slender, and scutellated 
tarsi ,* their slender toes, of which the outer are con- 
nected at base by a membrane ; their nails, subequal, 
weak, channelled beneath, much incurved, and extremely 
sharp : a very remarkable characteristic is exhibited in 
their long wings, subequal to the tail, which is large, 
and even, or slightly rounded at tip : their first quill is 
very short, always shorter than the fifth, and the third 
or fourth is the longest. Their slender body and elegant 
shape chiefly distinguish them from their allies, the 
buzzards. They may be farther subdivided into those 
in which the female at least is possessed of that curious 
facial ring of scaly or stiff feathers, so remarkable in 
the owls, and those entirely destitute of it. One species 
only is found in the United States, which belongs to 
the first section, and cannot be confounded with any 
other than that from which we have thought proper to 
distinguish it at the beginning of this article. In this 
section, the female differs essentially from the male, the 
young being similar to her in colour. The latter change 
wonderfully as they advance in age, to which circum- 
stance is owing the wanton multiplication that has been 
made of the species. In those which compose the 
