The egg of this species taken in Florida by Mr. Maynard is of a rounded oval shape, equally obtuse at either end, and measures 1.70 inches in length by 1.45 in breadth. The ground-color is a dingy white, irregularly, and in some parts profusely, blotched with groups of markings of a yellowish brown, shading from a light olive-brown to a much duller color, almost to a black hue. These markings in the specimen seen are not grouped around either end, but form a confluent belt around the central portions of the egg. The following description is given by Mr. Maynard of the other specimens taken by him. _Egg No. 1._ Ground-color bluish-white, spotted and blotched everywhere with brown and umber. Dimensions, 1.72 × 1.45. _No. 2._ Ground-color same as No. 1. Two large irregular blotches of dark brown and umber on the larger end, with smaller confluent blotches and streaks of the same, covering nearly the entire surface of that end; smaller end much more sparsely spotted with the same. Dimensions, 1.76 × 1.40. _No. 3._ Ground-color dirty brown. The entire egg, except the small end, covered with a washing of dark brown, which forms dark irregular blotches at various points, as if the egg had been painted and then taken in the fingers before drying. Dimensions, 1.55 × 1.55. GENUS CIRCUS, LACEPEDE. _Circus_, LACÉP. 1800, 1801. (Type, _Falco æruginosus_, LINN.) _Pygargus_, KOCH, 1816. (Same type.) _Strigiceps_, BONAP. 1831. (Type, _Falco cyaneus_, LINN.) _Glaucopteryx_, KAUP, 1844. (Type, _Falco cineraceus_, MONT.) _Spilocircus_, KAUP, 1847. (Type, _Circus jardini_, GOULD.) _Pterocircus_, KAUP, 1851. (Same type.) _Spizacircus_ and _Spiziacircus_, KAUP, 1844 and 1851. (Type, _Circus macropterus_, VIEILL.) [Illustration: =1042=, ♀. ½ ½ ¼ _Circus hudsonius._] GEN. CHAR. Form very slender, the wings and tail very long, the head small, bill weak, and feet slender. Face surrounded by a ruff of stiff, compact feathers, as in the Owls (nearly obsolete in some species). Bill weak, much compressed; the upper outline of the cere greatly ascending basally, and arched posteriorly, the commissure with a faint lobe; nostril oval, horizontal. Loral bristles fine and elongated, curving upwards, their ends reaching above the top of the cere. Superciliary shield small, but prominent. Tarsus more than twice the middle toe, slender, and with perfect frontal and posterior continuous series of regular transverse scutellæ; toes slender, the outer longer than the inner; claws strongly curved, very acute. Wings very long, the third or fourth quills longest; first shorter than the sixth; outer three to five with inner webs sinuated. Tail very long, about two thirds the wing; rounded.