430 BIRDS—FALCONID&. 
Mr. Read, that it is frequently seen. Mr. Langdon says that it is not rare 
in the vicinity of Cincinnati. Fully identified nest and eggs have been 
taken at Yellow Springs by Mr. W. M. Wilson. The nest was bui!t of 
sticks and placed in the fork of a moderately large tree. The eggs were 
white, rather sparsely blotched with light reddish-brown. The compli- 
ment of eggs is four, and they vary in size from 2.15 by 2.00 to 1.72 by 
1.70. 
GENus ARCHIBUTEO. Brehm. 
Large hawks; tarsi feathered in front to the toes, partly bare behind. Four outer 
primaries emarginate on inner web. Other characters much as those of Buteo. 
ARCHIBUTEO LAGOPUS (Gm.) Gr. 
var. SANCTI-JOHANNIS (Gm.) Ridgway. 
FRoough-legged Buzzard. 
Falco sancti-johannis, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 161, 178. 
Archibuteo sancti johannis, KIRKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, vii, 1€58, 123; Ohio AgTic. Rep., 
for 1858, 357.— WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 361; Reprint, 1861, 3. 
Archibuteo lagopus, KIRKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, vii, 1858, 131; Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1858, 
1859, 395.— WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 160, 361; Reprint, 1¢61, 3. 
Archibuteo lagopus, var. sancti-johannis, WHEATON, Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep., 
for 1874, 570; Reprint, 1876, 18.—Lan@pon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 13; Journ. Cin. 
Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1878, 116; Reprint, 7; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 
1879, 180; Reprint, 14. 
Falco sancti-johannis, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., 1, 1788, 270. 
Archibuteo sancti-johannis, BONAPARTE, Consp., 1850, 18. 
Archibuteo lagopus, CASSIN, Illust., 1254, 104. 
Archibuteo lagopus, var. sancti johannis, RiDGWAY, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1870, 142. 
Below, white, variously dark marked, and often with a broad black abdominal zone; 
but generally no ferrugineous. Above, brown varying from dark-chocolate in the 
adult to light-umber in the young; the back, scapulars and shorter quills strongly 
cinereous. The head above more or less white, dark streaked ; upper tail coverts and - 
tail at base white, the former tipped with blackish; the latter barred near the tip with 
one, and sometimes several bands of black or dark-brown. In this plumage the bird has 
been known as 4. lagopus, the Rough-legged Buzzard, while to a melanotic variety of 
the same, found in this country only, the name sancti-johannis, has been given. This 
variety is entirely glossy-black except the occiput, forehead, throat, inner webs of 
quills, base of tail and broad tail-bars, white. As it is now generally conceded that 
these are varieties of the same species, the original name, lagopus is retained and the 
American form considered a geographical variety of the European, characterized as 
variety sancti-johannis. Length, about 2 feet; wing, 16-18; tail, 8-10. 
Habitat, typical lagopus, Europe. Var. sancti-johannis in North America at large; 
rather northerly. The melanotic condition chiefly observed in the Middle Atlantic 
States, New England and northward. 
