THE MARSH HARRIER 



{circus ^ruginosus) 



TTERE again we have the sad record of a 

 species, once fairly dispersed over the 

 British Islands, now confined to one or two 

 localities, where it manages to elude that sense- 

 less persecution which seems likely to reduce it 

 to extinction. We fear there can be little doubt 

 that the Marsh Harrier breeds but in one English 

 county at the present time, and not at all in Scot- 

 land. In Ireland the bird is very probably more 

 abundant than it is in England, the country being 

 less populated and far more suited to its require- 

 ments. We have evidence to show that this 

 Harrier formerly bred in Devonshire, in Somerset, 

 Dorset, Shropshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, 

 possibly also throughout the marshy wastes of 

 East Anglia. Whether this species ever bred in 

 Scotland seems by no means clear. The only 

 place in which the Marsh Harrier is now known 



