148 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



with certainty to breed is in the Norfolk Broads. 

 In Ireland, Mr. Ussher informs us that it still 

 breeds sparingly in Queen's County and Galway, 

 and " probably " in King's County and Westmeath. 

 There can be little doubt that the drainage and 

 enclosure of marshy lands and fens has had a 

 great deal to do with the extermination of this 

 Harrier in England ; as poison and gamekeepers 

 are chief!}'' responsible for its present rarity in 

 Ireland. If the bird's haunts are destroyed, the 

 birds perforce must go too ; and possibly the 

 day is not far distant when the Irish bogs will 

 be the sole retreat of the Marsh Harrier in Britain. 

 There, however, some means should be taken to 

 ensure the bird greater security than it now 

 enjoys. 



Outside our area the Marsh Harrier has a very 

 wide distribution, reaching across Europe and 

 Asia to Japan. It is not an Arctic bird, breeding 

 in the south of Sweden only, but it is pretty 

 generally distributed over Temperate and Southern 

 Europe, as well as throughout the Mediterranean 

 countries of North Africa (in winter reaching to 

 the Equator). It is a summer migrant in the 

 northern areas, but a resident in warmer and 

 more southern localities. Eastwards we trace 



