184 Mr. Montagu's Remarks on Fatco cyaneus, 



upon pointed assertions, it will not be allowed by one party that 

 both the F. cyaneus and F. pygargns having been shot at the same 

 nest, is a direct proof of their being the same species. Nor, on the 

 contrary, will the other be convinced of the fact by a bare asser- 

 tion that female Hen Harriers have been observed ; for it may 

 be said, that as birds of prey plunder the nests of others, one of 

 these birds might be shot in that act of depredation. And the 

 circumstance of a single instance of a female bird appearing in 

 the habit of a Hen Harrier, may be disputed as equally liable 

 to objection, since instances have not been wanting to prove 

 that female birds have occasionally assumed the male plumage. 

 Such difficulties could only be removed, and the fact in- 

 disputably established, by finding the nest, and rearing the 

 young ; and I am happy in being now enabled to lay before 

 the Society the result of an experiment, of this nature, which 

 must bring all controversy to a conclusion. To a member of this 

 Society, the Rev. Mr. Vaughan, we are greatly indebted, as the 

 discovery might yet have been protracted to a series of years, 

 but for his kind communication and essential aid towards the de- 

 velopment of the subject. 



-About the latter end of June, in the year 1805, my friend 

 informed me that his servant had found the nest of a Hen Harrier 

 in some furze, which contained three young, and an addle ego- ; at 

 this time the infant birds were very small, and only covered 

 with white down : it was therefore determined to take them as 

 soon as we deemed them sufficiently large to be brought up by 

 hand : when that period arrived, the servant was directed to 

 shoot one, and if possible both of the old birds, previously to 

 his bearing away what was considered a prize of no small value. 

 On the return of the man with the young, he brought with 

 him also the Hen Harrier, which he assured us he had under con- 

 cealment 



