Yu,J5vHbtdiJvrTohn/ tMMrray.jSooktseZlcr dotktAAchmi-cdiy,
[17.] 4. Buteo (Circus) cyaneus? var.? Americanus. American Hen-
Harrier.
' Ge n u s . Buteo. R a y . Sub-genus. Circus. A n t id .
The Ring-tailed Hawk. (Pygargus acdpiter, Canadensis.} E dw a rds, pi. 107. Female from Hudson’s Bay.
Falco spadiceus. F o r s t . Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 383, No. 2. ? Yearling from Hudson’s Bay.
Moor Buzzard, var. A. Bay Falcon. L a t h . Syn., i . , p . 54, No. 34. ? Forster’s specimen.
Moor Buzzard, var. B. White-rumped Bay F. I d e m , i., p. 54, .No. 34. Young; described from a drawing
made at Hudson’s Bay.
Hudson’s Bay Ring-tail. I d e m , p. 91, sp. 76. Y
Ring-tail. P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii. p. 209, sp . 106. r From Hudson’s Bay.
Falco cyaneus, var. p>. L a t h ., Jnd., p. 40, sp. 94.- '
Marsh Hawk. ( Falco -uliginosus.') W il s o n , vi., p. 67, pi- 51, f. 1. Young. Pennsylvania.
Falco uliginosus. S a b i n e . Frankl. Joum., p. 671. Young female. Hudson’s Bay.
Falco cyaneus. B o n a p. Orn., ii., p. 30, pi. 12.. Adult male.
Annooch-kee-naepeek-quseshew. (Snake Hunter.) Cr e e I n d ia n s .
P late x x ix . M a l e .
This bird takes its prey from the ground, hunts long and diligently for it
on the wing, and quarters the district regularly, so as to survey every spot,
wheeling backwards and forwards in easy, graceful circles, with little seeming
effort or flapping of the wings. • It is wary, but not timid,—avoiding the sportsman,
but not easily driven away from its hunting-grounds. It is a common species
on the plains of the Saskatchewan, seldom less than five or six being in sight at a
time, each keeping to a particular beat until it has completely examined it. Their
flight was in general low ; but although Mr. Drummond and I watched them for
hours at a time, and lay as still on the grass as possible, they invariably rose out
of gunshot as they passed over our heads, and the specimens were procured only
by lying in ambush near the nest. Notwithstanding they appeared to be almost
constantly on the wing, we seldom saw them carry anything away; and they
seemed on the whole to be less successful hunters than the little Falco sparverius, or the lazy Buzzards, that sat watching for their prey on the bough of a tree. A
small green snake is very plentiful in that quarter, and forms a considerable portion
of the food of this bird,—whence its Cree name of the “ Snake Hunter.”
The nests that we observed were built on the ground, by the sides of small lakes,
of moss, grass, feathers, and hair, and contained from three to five eggs, of a
smaller size than those of the domestic fowl, but similar in shape, and having a
bluish-white colour, without spots. The eggs measured an inch and three-quarters