of the changes caused by the reclaiming of that extensive
district, continued to breed there later than the others, there
seems to be 110 county in the British Islands where Montagu’s
Harrier may now he said to breed regularly. According
to Mr. More, its nest was until the last few years, or,
may he, still is occasionally found in Somerset, Dorset, Pem-
biokeshire, Kent and Norfolk. At Hickling, in the county
last named, four young birds, which in Mr. Stevenson’s
opinion had been bred in the neighbourhood, were killed in
August, 1870. Of the other English counties, such as
Devon ^ (where Montagu first found it breeding), Suffolk,
Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Shropshire, Cumberland
and Northumberland, in all of which there is more or less
satisfactory evidence of its nests having formerly been found,
none have been recorded for several years past, and the
species bids fair shortly to become 110 longer indigenous,
though Mr. J. H. Gurney, Junior, reports the capture, during
the present summer (1871), of a pair, with their nestling
young, near Bridlington in Yorkshire. Already in some of
the counties where it used to be so abundant, it must now be
regarded as an irregular autumnal migrant.
^ Montagu’s Harrier has been met with in Scotland, but is
of rare occurrence and has been only noticed there of late
years. The report of its having bred in Sutherland, made
by two writers, but apparently resting on the same authority,
seems to require confirmation. Mr. Robert Gray, however,
mentions a specimen now in the collection of Mr. E. S.'
Sinclair of Wick and said to have been shot in Caithness^
which is probably the most northern locality 011 record for
this species. In Ireland as we learn from Mr. Watters it
has only occurred in two instances, once near Bray and once
cit tliG Scalp in tliG county of AVicklow.
According to the best authorities Montagu’s Harrier is,
or was, a common bird in Belgium and Holland where it
breeds. In the western parts of North Germany it seldom
occurs though Dr. Borggreve states that it certainly breeds
m Mecklenburg and Anhalt, but Gloger reports it as being
commoner in Silesia. From the Scandinavian ornithologists
we learn that it has been observed during the whole summer
in Denmark and is supposed to breed there, but it is unknown
in Norway : in Sweden only a few examples have been
taken and these in the extreme south, and in Finland its
appearance is merely accidental. Nothing seems to have
been recorded with certainty as to its distribution in European
or Asiatic Russia; but from the facts that Mr. Swinlioe gives
it as occurring on the river Yang-tsee in China, while Mr.
Jerdon says that it is abundant and migratory in every part
of India, and Mr. Gurney has seen it from Ceylon, one may
pretty safely infer that it is to be found at least in the
southern parts of Central Asia, and the Leyden Museum
possesses a specimen from the mouth of the Jaik. Mene-
tries saw it only in the Caucasus, where it is r a r e ; Mr.
Abbott procured it at Trebizond, and Canon Tristram obtained
it twice in Palestine. In Egypt it occurs on passage
and is abundant in the highlands of Abyssinia in winter and
spring. I t is also found in Sennaar and Kordofan. Mr.
Layard saw many examples and killed one on one of the
Comoro Islands, and, although rare, it has been several
times obtained in the Cape Colony and in Damara-land.
Loche gives it as breeding in Algeria, and Mr. Drake saw
it on several occasions in Eastern Morocco, while M.
Bertholet records it from the Canaries. In Portugal Prof.
du Bocage says that it is common, and Mr. Saunders that
it is resident throughout the year in southern Spain, where
it is tolerably numerous. In some parts of France it would
seem to be very abundant; thus, in the Department of the
Yienne, near Loudun, M. Barbier Montault states in an
interesting account of its habits, in the ‘ Revue Zoologique ’
for 1838, that he has seen it, at the close of the breeding
season, not merely by hundreds but by thousands, the birds
collecting towards evening to roost in company ; and it may
be observed of this species as of the preceding that it seldom
if ever perches, but passes the night on the ground among
rough herbage or heather.
The length of the adult male is about seventeen inches.
The beak is nearly black; the cere greenish-yellow; the
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