100 FALCONIDÆ.
RAPTORES. FALCONIDÆ.
m
f l
B S P * —
WÊ&
Falco hyemalis,
MONTAGU’S H A R R IER .
Ash-coloured Falcon, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 243.
cineraceus, ,, ,, M ont. Ornith. Diet.
Buteo ,,
Circus ,,
Buteo ,,
Circus ,,
Falco ,,
,, ,, B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 37.
,, Buzzard, F lem. Brit. An. p. 55.
,, Harrier, Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 70.
,, ,, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 90.
,, ,, G ould, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.
Busard Montagu, T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 76.
One of the very few alterations in the names of our
British Birds which will be proposed in this work, refers,
as seen above, to this Harrier; and it is hoped that the
Montagu’s harr ier. 101
reasons to be given for adopting this change will be considered
even more than sufficient to justify it.
The specific distinction of the Ash-coloured Harrier was
first demonstrated by Colonel Montagu, in consequence of
which M. Temminck, Vieillot, and Meyer, have called this
bird Le Busard de Montagu, and probably other Continental
naturalists have done the same, as a tribute due to the
discernment of our English Ornithologist; there seems to be
no good reason, therefore, that Montagu’s own countrymen
should not now adopt this complimentary memorial. At
this time a fourth species of Harrier has been made known
in the twenty-second and last part of Mr. Gould’s Birds of
Europe ; and others have been described as belonging to
different parts of Asia, Africa, and America, in each of which
the adult males, as in all the true Harriers, are more or less
ash-coloured ; this term, therefore, no longer conveys a specific
distinction. To this I may add, that Montagu himself,
either by mistake or error of the press, has called this bird
cineraceus in his Ornithological Dictionary, cinerarius in
his Supplement to the Dictionary, and cinerareus in his
paper in the Linnean Transactions, volume the ninth, page
188 ; it will therefore be an advantage, as well as a gratification,
to call this bird in future Montagu’s Harrier, and
Circus Montagui.
Specimens of Montagu’s Harrier of either sex may be
readily distinguished from those of the Hen Harrier, although
about equal to them in length, by being much more
slender in shape, and not near so heavy, the average weight
of Montagu’s Harrier being about nine and a quarter ounces,
that of the Hen Harrier about thirteen ounces : the wings
are also longer in reference to the end of the tail, and the
third quill-feather of the wing is much more pointed; but in
their habits, and the sort of country they are most partial
to, the two species are very similar.