BAPTOBES. FALCONIDÆ.
TH E H EN H A R R IER .
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Circus ,,
Buteo ,,
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Hen Harrier, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 239.
>> ,, M ont. Ornith. Diet.
>> „ B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 34.
» „ F lem. Brit. An. p. 53.
» » Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 68.
>> » J enyns, ” Brit. Vert. p. 89. » Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.
BusardSt. Martin, T emm. Man. d’Ornith. voi.i. p. 72.
T he decided difference in colour between the males and
females of the true Harriers when adult is a subject now so
well understood as to require to be noticed here only as a
prominent illustration of one of the laws which appear to
influence the assumption and changes of plumage in birds,
to be hereafter more particularly adverted to. In the present
instance, the old male, from his almost uniform ash grey colour
as seen in the figure, is called provincially the Dove
Hawk and Blue Hawk ; and on account of a supposed partiality
to some part of the produce of the farmyard, by the
more general name of Hen Harrier. The female, called a
Ringtail, is brown : a representation of the head of one forms
the subject of the vignette, in which, from its spotted appearance,
the circular ruff around the face is distinctly seen.
These birds inhabit flat marshy situations, fens, low moors
and commons, partially covered with furze and short bushes.
They feed indiscriminately on small mammalia, birds, and
reptiles: twenty lizards were found in the stomach of one
killed near London. They are considered to be particularly
destructive to the young of Gallinaceous birds. Their flight,
performed apparently without much labour, is easy and buoyant,
but not rapid, and generally within a few feet of the
surface of the ground, which they appear to examine with
great care, making close and diligent search for any object
of food, and have courage and strength sufficient to pounce
upon and kill a Partridge, a Red Grouse, or even a.Pheasant,
They have been observed to hunt the same ground
regularly; and a male bird has been seen to examine a large
wheat stubble thoroughly, crossing it in various directions,
always about the same hour in the afternoon,: and for many
days in succession. An interesting account of the habits of
the Hen Harrier in the North, by Sir William Jardine, and
from his own observations, will be found in a long note
appended to the article on the Hen Harrier, in his edition of
Wilson’s American Ornithology, volume iii. page 892.
The nest is placed on the ground ; the materials collected
to form it are but few, consisting of small sticks and coarse
grass: the eggs are four or five in number, white or of a
pale skimmed-milk blue, one inch eight lines long by one