returned when I called it to feed. After some time, when I judged that I could trust to its fidelity, I removed the ligatures; and fastened a small bell, an inch and a half in diameter, above its talon, and also attached to its breast a bit of copper, having my name engraved on it. I then gave it entire liberty, which it soon abused; for it took wing, and flew as far as the forest of Belesme. I gave it up for lost; but four hours afterwards, I saw it rush into my hall, pursued by four or five other buzzards, which had constrained it to seek again its asylum. After this adventure, it preserved its fidelity to me, coming every night to sleep on my window." It would also sit by and caress him at dinner, and follow him when he was on horseback. This bird had a remarkable antipathy to wigs, and particularly to red caps, which it never failed to snatch' from the wearers, and deposit in a very high tree, that served as a store-house for its plunder. It is still more to the credit of the buzzard, that it is a most kind and assiduous parent; and Ray affirms that, should the female chance to be killed, the male will take charge of the young ones, and rear them till they can provide for themselves. The eggs of this bird are whitish, spotted with yellow.

THIS bird is about twenty-one inches in length, with a black bill, and yellow cere and eyes. The whole crown of the head is of a yellowish white, lightly tinged with brown; the throat is of a light rust color; the rest of the plumage is of a reddish brown, with pale edges; the greater wing-coverts are tipped with white; the legs are yellow; and claws black.

Rabbits, young wild ducks, and other waterfowl, are the prey of this bird; which will likewise feed on fish, frogs, reptiles, and even insects. Its haunts are in hedges and bushes, near pools, marshes, and rivers that abound with fish. It builds its nest a little above the surface of the ground, or in hillocks

covered with thick herbage; the female lays three or four eggs of a whitish color, irregularly sprinkled with dusky spots. Though smaller, it is more active and bold than the common buzzard, and when pursued, it faces its antagonist, and makes a vigorous defence.

Birds of this kind differ much; in some the crown and back part of the head being yellow; while some are uniformly of a chocolate brown, with a tinge of rust color.

Is distinguished by his forked tail, and slow sailing flight, in which he seems perpetually on the wing. He is larger than the common buzzard. He has large eyes, yellow legs and feet, and black talons. The head and back are of a pale ash hue, which is varied across the shafts of the feathers by longitudinal lines. His neck is reddish; the feathers covering the inside of the wings are red, with black spots in the centre; and the lesser rows of the wing feathers are party-colored black, red, and white. He lives only upon accidental carnage, as almost every bird in the air is able to make good his retreat against him. He may be, therefore, considered as an insidious thief, who only prowls about, and, when he finds a small bird wounded, or a young chicken strayed too far from the mother, instantly seizes the hour of calamity, and, like a famished glutton, is sure to show no mercy. His hunger, indeed, often urges him to acts of seeming desperation. We have seen one of them fly round and round for a while to mark a clutch of chickens, and then on a sudden dart like lightning upon the unresisting little animal, and carry it off, the hen in vain crying out, and the boys hooting and casting stones to scare it from its plunder. For this reason, of all birds, the kite is the good housewife's greatest tormenter and aversion.

THE ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON,1

NOTWITHSTANDING its formidable size and appearance, spends the chief part of the winter among our low swamps and meadows, watching for mice, frogs, lame ducks, and other inglorious game. Twenty or thirty individuals of this family have regularly taken up their winter quarters for several years past in the meadows below Philadelphia, between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, where they spend their time watching the banks like cats; or sailing low and slowly over the surfaces of the ditches. Though rendered shy by any attempt made to shoot them, they seldom fly far, usually from one tree to another at no great distance, making a loud squealing as they rise, something resembling the neighing of a young colt, though in a more shrill and savage tone.

This bird is common during winter in the lower parts of Maryland, and numerous in the extensive meadows below Newark, New Jersey; and are frequent along the Connecticut river. Their flight is slow and heavy. They take their station at daybreak near a ditch, bank, or haystack, for hours together, watching with patient vigilance for the first unlucky frog, mouse, or lizard, to make its appearance. The instant one of these is descried, the hawk, sliding into the air, sweeps over the spot, and in an instant has his prey grappled and sprawling in the air.

THE MISSISSIPPI KITE 2

I FIRST observed, says Wilson, a few miles below Natchez, where I found them in company with the turkey buzzard, whose flight it so exactly imitates as to seem the same species, in miniature. It sails about in easy circles, and at an immense height in the air. I observed numbers of this hawk sweeping about among the trees like swallows, in pursuit of the locusts that were in swarms on the trees, so that insects, it would appear, are the principal food of this species; but I do not doubt that mice, lizards, snakes, and small birds, furnish him with an occasional repast. This hawk is fourteen inches in length, and three feet in extent of wing. It is of an ash color, with a white neck and head.

1 F. lagopus, LIN.

2 F. plumbeus, GMEL.

39*

THE MARSH HAWK1

Is, no doubt, the same species as the ring-tailed hawk of Europe. They are very common in New Jersey, where they are known by the name of mouse hawk. It is said, by Bonaparte, to be the young hen-harrier. They are most numerous in extensive meadows and salt marshes, over which they sail very low, making frequent circuitous sweeps over the ground, in search of a species of mouse, very abundant in such situations. It is said by European writers to build on the ground, or on the low limbs of It is found at Hudson's Bay. It is particularly serviceable to the rice fields of the southern states, by the havoc it makes among the clouds of rice buntings that spread so much devastation among that grain. The planters consider one hawk to be equal to several negroes for alarming the rice birds.

trees.

THE RED-TAILED HAWK, OR BUZZARD,2 INHABITS the whole of the United States. Among the extensive meadows that border the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers below Philadelphia, where flocks of larks, and where mice and moles are in great abundance, many individuals of this hawk spend the greater part of the winter. Others prowl about the plantations, looking for vagrant chickens; their method of seizing which, is by sweeping swiftly over the spot; and then, grappling them with their talons, they bear them away to the woods.

THE AMERICAN BUZZAR D3

RESEMBLES the red-tailed hawk, in size and general aspect, but differs somewhat in color. It may perhaps on investigation be found to be the same. It is more numerous than the latter, but frequents the same situations in the winter. One, which was shot on the wing, lived several weeks, but refused to eat. It amused itself by frequently hopping from one end of the room to the other, and sitting for hours at the window, looking down on the passengers below. At first, when approached by any one, he drew back; but after some time, he became quite familiar, permitting himself to be handled, and shutting his eyes as if quite passive. Though he lived so long without food, he was found on dissection to be exceedingly fat.

1 F. cyaneus, LIN.

2F. borealis, GMEL.

3 F. buteoides, Nuttall.

THE EUROPEAN HORNED OWL, OR
EAGLE OWL,1

AT first view appears as large as an eagle, though when he comes to be observed more closely, he will be found much less, being but two feet in length. His eyes are large and transparent, encircled with an orange colored iris; his ears are large and deep; his plumage is of reddish brown, marked on the back with black and yellow spots, and yellow only upon the belly. To its offspring it is very affectionate, and if they are taken from the nest and confined, it will assiduously supply them with food. This, however, it accomplishes with such secrecy and sagacity, that it is almost impossible to detect it in the act. This bird has been seen in Scotland, and in Yorkshire, but is not common in England.

All birds of the owl kind have one common mark, by which they are distinguished from others; their eyes, like those of tigers and cats, are formed for seeing better in the dusk, than in the broad glare of sunshine. The pupil, in fact, is capable of opening very wide, or shutting very close; and, by contracting it, the brighter light of the day, which would act too

1 Strix bubo, Lix. The genus Strix has the bill bent from its origin; base surrounded by a cere, covered wholly or in part by stiff hairs; head large, much feathered; nostrils lateral, pierced in the anterior margin of the cere, rounded, open, concealed by hairs directed forwards; eyes very large, orbits surrounded by feathers; legs feathered, often to the claws; three toes before and one behind, separate, the exterior reversible; the first wing feathers dentated on their exterior border, the third the longest.