36 
BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER, 
and so great appears to have been the deference of ornithologists 
for this extraordinary man, that while they have unhesitatingly 
quoted as synonymous with the European Hen-Harrier, the African 
specimens described by Le Vaillant, and even the various nominal 
species created or adopted by Vieillot as North American, the 
Falco uliginosus of former authors has been respected, probably as 
the Marsh-Hawk of Wilson! But the latter is not more than the 
others entitled to be admitted as distinct, being merely the present 
in its youthful dress. 
The Hen-Harrier belongs to the subgenus Circus , which in 
English we shall call Harrier, the name of Buzzard being appro¬ 
priated to the Buteones. 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, Jlstur 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 connected at base by a membrane; their nails, sub¬ 
equal, 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, 
