Ash-coloured Harrier.
Falco cineraceus, Mont. Orn. Diet.
cinerarius, Mont. ibid. Supp.
cinerareus, Mont. Trans, of Linn. Soc., vol. ix. p. 188.
cinerascens, Barb. Rev. Zool. 1838, p. 121.
kyemalis, Penn. Brit. Zool., edit. 1812, vol. i. p. 243.
Circus cinerarius, 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. Vög. Deutschi., tom. i. p. 402, tab. 40.
Montagui, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. N a t, tom. xxxi p. 411.
— cinereus, Kaup, Ueb. Falk. Mus. Senck., p. 258.
Buteo cineraceus, Flem. Hist. Brit. Anim., p. 55.
Strigiceps cineraceus, Bonap. Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 3.
Circus (Glaucopteryx) cineraceus, Kaup, Classif. der Säug, und Vög., p. 113.
Glaucopteryx cinerascens, Kaup, Mon. Falc. in Jard. Orn. Cont., 1850, p. 58.
O n 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 o f a different genus, to which he has given the name of Glaucopteryx. I t 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 flanks 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 young males in particular are extremely variable, some being marked very like the female, while
other’s are of a nearly uniform rufous brown, and others almost black. As to numbers, the two birds are
pretty much on a p a r ; and their distribution over England is very similar. Like the Hen Harrier, the present
species 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 of 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. I t is therefore occasionally to be met with in all parts of 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 H eath, in Dorsetshire. Thompson remarks t h a t !' 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 plumage 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 it among our woodlands as to look for a Kite over the fens. Like the Hen Harrier, it loves the open
country, whether it be the high fell or the low marsh, where it may readily procure the snakes, frogs,
newts, and insects which constitute its favourite diet,—not that it refuses to prey upon moles, rats, and the
young o f rodents of a larger kind, the hare and the rabbit, to which may be added the youthful game-birds
of all kinds, its propensity for killing which induces the keeper to include it in his list of vermin and to
resort to every artifice for its destruction.
In other parts of the world apart from England the Ash-coloured Harrier is, I believe, both m ore numerous
and more widely spread than the Hen Harrier. It is abundant in Holland and Holstein, and m all
the fluviatile 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 abundance
in every part o f the country.
As might be supposed, the flight of this species is very similar to that of the Hen H a r r ie r ; but Mr. Selby
remarks that it is more rapid and more strikingly buoyant.
Speaking o f Circus cineraceus as seen in Norfolk, Mr. Stevenson says “ it is certainly less rare than is
generally supposed, and has been known to breed with us in several instances of late y e a rs; previously to
the entire drainage o f the south-western fens, this harrier was not only the most plentiful in that locality, but
was the last to quit altogether those once favourite haunts.” For many details respecting the nesting o f this
species and the specimens taken in the county, I must refer my readers to the first volume o f Mr. Stevenson s
‘ B irds o f Norfolk,’ p. 40. #
Mr. Alfred Newton states, in his ‘ Ootheca Wolleyana,' that Vipers, o f Upware, in Cambridgeshire, told