A OOIPITRES. FALCONIDAS,
C ir c u s c in e r a c e u s (Montagu*).
MONTAGU’S HARRIER.
Circus Montagui t.
T h e specific distinction of this bird was first demonstrated,
in 1802, by Colonel Montagu, who named it the Ash-
coloured H arrier; but in consequence of a suggestion made
in the first Edition of this work, English ornithologists have
very generally followed the example set them by continental
writers and commemorated the discoverer of this species by
calling it Montagu’s Harrier.
* Falco cineraceus, Montagu, Ornithological Dictionary, vol i funpaged)
(1802).
t Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxi. p. 411 (1819).
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 ounces and a
quarter, that of the Hen-Harrier about thirteen ounces ; the
tarsus is shorter; the third quill-feather, or remex, of the
wing is also much more pointed, and the wings are also
longer in proportion, whence probably it is that the flight
of Montagu’s Harrier is sufficiently different from that of
the preceding species to admit of easy recognition at a
considerable distance by any person conversant with the
appearance of the two birds on the wing : the present being
much quicker in its movements and more strikingly buoyant
than the Hen-Harrier. In their general habits and in the
sort of country to which they are most partial, however, both
species are very similar.
The food of Montagu’s Harrier consists chiefly of grasshoppers,
reptiles, small mammals, birds and their eggs—
these last, if their size permit, being often swallowed whole.
In proof of its fondness for reptile food, Mr. Rodd has
recorded the fact that an example of this species, though its
attention was attracted by a trap baited with a rabbit, continued
to hover about without pouncing, but, on a viper
being substituted for the rabbit, the bird was immediately
caught. The nest and eggs resemble those of the Hen-
Harrier, but the former is more slightly built and the latter
are generally smaller, measuring from 1'72 to 1'51 by 1'39
to 1-25 in. While the hen is sitting, she is carefully attended
by the cock, who brings her food for which she flies to
meet him, and on his dropping it, will catch it in the air. In
this, as in several other species of birds-of-prey, incubation
often commences as soon as the first egg is laid, and consequently
it is not unusual to find a considerable difference
in the age of the young, which, according to Mr. Jenyns, are
usually hatched about the second week in June.
Though at one time the most numerous species of Harrier
in the fens of the Eastern Counties, and that which, in spite
l i p # ;