MONTAGU'S HARRIER 



'33 



in Devonshire, Somerset, Dorset, and Hants. Its 

 principal haunts at the present day appear to be 

 the heaths of Norfolk. Possibly the bringing of 

 common land into cultivation may have had some 

 influence in reducing the numbers of this Harrier ; 

 but there can be no doubt that the persecution of 

 gamekeepers has had infinitely more. If we are 

 to retain this elegant and pretty bird in our fauna, 

 measures will have speedily to be taken, for all 

 the available evidence at the present day goes to 

 show that this Harrier is upon the very verge of 

 extinction. The old stock of birds that has been 

 in the habit of migrating to Britain to breed is 

 just upon exhausted, and if the few remaining 

 pairs are not shown some consideration, the species 

 must cease to exist as a British one. This Harrier 

 never seems to have been a regular inhabitant of 

 Ireland, and only one or two odd birds have been 

 obtained there. 



Outside the British Islands Montagu's Harrier 

 is generally distributed as a breeding species over 

 Continental Europe, south of the Baltic and the 

 Gulf of Finland. Eastwards we trace it as a 

 breeding species into Turkestan and Southern 

 Siberia at least as far as the valley of the Yenisei. 

 The winter range of this species not only includes 



