IR C U S C Y A N E U S .
Hen Harrier.
P m
Strip
But«
mm», et pygargus, Lirin. Syst. Nat., tom. i. pp. 126-128.
iemti NihW. Faun. Suec., tom. i. p. 21.
¡ritta#, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Marniti. & Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 9.
iimmius, Savig, Descr. del'Egypte, Hist. Nat., tom . i. p. ♦ tipirjfut,
Cut. Reg«. Anim., edit. 1817, tom. i. p; 324.
.• h/kfps) cyawmt ' • itfighmu-s, Kaup, Mus. S e n c k e n b . , p. 258. '
‘U&par, Koch, Syst. der Baier. Zool., p. 128.
pygarpH*, Bonsp. Geog. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer.,
'i, Jeny ns, Man. Brit. Vert. Anim., p. 89.
W*m 1 to say to the rising ornithologists o f the present day, “ If you wish to see the Hen Harrier and its
consort the Ringtail performing their buoyant and elegant flight, and hunting in concert over an open part
of the country, go to the Gossmoor o f Cornwall, the lofty hills of charming Devon, the great heaths of Surrey,
Susses, and Hampshire, the flat fenny districts o f Suffolk, Norfolk, Huntingdon, and Lincolnshire, the Yorkshire
tvolds, the fells of Westmoreland and Cumberland, the rushy hill-sides o f the Scottish border, the
Cheviots, and the Grampians, as far north as the land trends,” I fear 1 should he sending them on a bootless-
errand ; yet there was a time, and that within the present century, when the birds might have been seen in
any of the localities above enumerated. Such, however, is now rarely the case. Nature and her productions
trendy interfered w ith : some species have been extirpated from districts where they were
«liful, while others have become abundhnt in situations where previously they were but little
the Harriers and other large predatory birds are .no longer to be found in their wonted
t to be wondered a t when we remember how large a portion of the country formerly in a natural
is now been brought under cultivation, and that the keeper and the shepherd exterminate them
icy can. I t is not to be expected th at such people are imbued with -the love for nature and her
rorks which reigns in the breast of die true n a turalist: they do not even care to read the many
•sages which have been written on our native birds, from the time o f Gilbert White to that of
,.s who have but rfSeently passed away, among which none are perhaps more truly descriptive of
■ aetions o f birds than Macgillivray’s,—who, speaking o f the Circus cyanetu says
iroiued the form, and somewhat o f the structure o f the Hen Harrier, we are prepared for the
faculties. Kneel down here, then, among the long broom, and let us watch the pair that
have been
formerly pit
known, T
haunt* m m
condition h
whenever -t
wouderftti i
beautiful pi«
those authci
the habits x
“ H aring
exhibition of
have j u s t 1
o f youde
pinks thi
made th eir appearance on the shoulder of the hill. Leave these beautiful flowerets to the inspect!
■ botanist, who, should he wander hitherward, will be delighted to cull the lovely tufts o f maidenupon
but it
. they glide along, in their circling flight, with gentle flaps o f their expanded wings,
n the air, their half-spread tails inclined from side to side, as they balance themselves or
Now they are near enough to enable us to distinguish the male from the female. They
in concert: and their search is k een; for they fly at times so low as almost to touch the
rise higher than thirty feet. The grey bird hovers, fixing himself in the air like the
loops, but recovers himself. A hare breaks from the covert hut they follow her not.
rere they to spy her young one, it would not escape so well. The female now hovers for
, llv'sh.ks for a short space, ascends, turns a little to one side, closes her wings, and
uni. She has secured her prey j for she remains concealed among the furze; while the
flying at the height o f three o r four yards, sweeps along the hawthorn hedge, bounds over
turns away to skim over the sedgy pool, and hovers there a short while. He nr
I, when a Partridge springs off, and he pursues it with a rapid gliding flight; but t
»»d the wood conceals them from our view. In the meantime the female has sprung up.
tlv inspecting the ground, and so heedless o f our presence that she passes wrt
w »be «peedi), anil in passing the pool again stoops, but recovers herself
ihmU the plantation and is out o f sight.
rier feed» upon suudl birds and the young o f larger, on young hares and r a b b i t s , on mice,
serpent* For tbe most part it pounces upon its victims as they repose upon i
* birds *<> fin'ii flight; and, so far from confining itself to fee me game, s
IHa^snisrjsii and Partridge