# CiBjCUS CIHERACE1JS.
Ash-coloured Harrier.
Faii-o cineraceus, Mont. Orn. Diet.
cinerarias, Mont. ibid. Supp.
- ——anerareus, Mont. Trans. >f Linn. Soc., vol. ix. p. 188.
—-—- cinerascens, Barb. Rev. Zool. 1838, p. 121.
— kyemalis, Penn. Brit. Zool., edit. 1812, vol. i. p. 243.
Circus cinerarias, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. & Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 9.
cinerascens, Steph. Cont. Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xii. part ii. p. 41.
- cineraceus, Naum. Vog. Deutschl., tom. i. p. 402, tab. 40.
Montapui, Yieifl. Nouv. Diet. d’H is t N a t, tom. xxxi p. 411.
cinereus, Kaup, Ueb. Falk. Mus. Senck., p. 258.
£ cineracrw, Flem. Hist. Brit. Anim., p. 55.
. i.-ri's cineraceus, Bonap. Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 3.
Cirv*s (Glaucopteryx) cineraceus, Kaup, Classif. der S'aug. und Yog., p. 113.
Giauettplery* cinerascens, Kaup, Mon. Falc. in Jard. Orn. Cont., 1850, p. 58.
On a superficial view this species might be mistaken for the Hen Harrier, but a comparison o f the two birds
would soon prove to the most sceptical that it is really distinct; Dr. Kaup has gone so far as to make it the
type of a different genus, to which he has given the name o f Glaucopteryx. It is a smaller and consequently
a lighter bird than the Hen H a rrie r; and its longer wings are crossed by a blackish b a r ; the markings of
its tail are different in form and richer in colour, as are also the fianks and th ig h s ; the bird is, moreover,
subject to so many changes of plumage between youth and maturity that two specimens can rarely be found
alike ; the voting males in particular are extremely variable, some being marked very like the female, while
others are o f a nearly uniform rufous brown, and others almost black. As to numbers, the two birds are
prettv much on a p a r ; and their distribution over England is very similar. Like the H en Harrier, the present
specie* was more common in former times; and it is now, I believe, more numerous than its ally—a circumstance
which may be attributable to its greater powers o f flight, and probably to its disposition to wander
hither from other countries, to fill up, as it were, the void caused in its numbers by the destructive hand of
the keeper. It is therefore occasionally to be met with in all parts o f England, from the western county of
Cornwall to as far north as Northumberland. In June 1867, Col. Napier Sturt submitted to me a fine
female killed on Poole Heath, in Dorsetshire. Thompson remarks that “ it is not known as an Irish species;
nor has it a place among Scottish birds, according to Macgillivray and Jardine.”
The examples o f the Ash-coloured Harrier most frequently met with are in the pluipage of immaturity; but
individuals in the perfect grey dress are sometimes seen. In speaking o f its general distribution over England
I o f course mean in such districts as are suited to its habits and economy; for it would be as useless to
seek ii among our woodlands as to look for a Kite over the fens. Like the Hen Harrier, it loves the open
co, w|u.thcr it be the high fell or the low marsh, where it may readily procure the snakes, frogs,
new», .Ind insects which constitute its fevourite diet,—not th at it refuses to prey upon moles, rats, and the
y o u n g 'ro d e n t s of a larger kind, the hare and the rabbit, to which may be added the youthful game-birds
of .,■■ kmds, its propensity for killing which induces the keeper to include it in his list o f vermin and to
t t «very artifice for its destruction. ’
la wWr parts o f the world apart from England the Ash-coloured Harrier is, I believe, both m ore numerous
and «vice widely spread than the Hen Harrier. It is abundant in Holland and Holstein, and in all
the portions o f the Continent from France to Bulgaria and the Crimea; and it is very generally
distributed over North Africa, Asia Minor, and India,' where, Mr. Jerdon informs us, he has found it in abunriaaer
in every part o f the country.
ha n ig h t t o supposed, the flight o f this species is very similar to that o f the Hen H a r r ie r ; but Mr. Selby
ks fiiai it is more rapid and more strikingly buoyant.
- .-"'•-.••slicing oi Circus cineraceus as seen in Norfolk, Mr. Stevenson says “ it is certainly lens rare than is
m*#* supposed, and has been known to breed with us in several instances o f late y e a rs; . . . - previously to
the entire drainage'of the south-western fens, this harrier was not only the most plentiful in that locality, but
wm t k Imt to quit altogether those once fevourite haunts.” For many details respecting the imtta
specie« and «to specimens taken in the county, I must refer my readers to the first volume of M
* Birds o f Norfolk,’ p. 40.
Mr. Alfred Newton states, in his ‘ O otheca Wolleyana,’ that Vipers, of I pwar