THE HEN HARRIER 



{circus CYANEUS) 



rpHE trivial name of this Harrier is a significant 

 testimony to its former abundance in the 

 British Islands. Even at the present time we 

 should class it as the most common of the three 

 British species, notwithstanding a long course of 

 persecution, and very probably because its haunts 

 are inaccessible to the multitude. At one time 

 very widely dispersed, it now seems to be confined 

 to the wild moorland districts from Cornwall and 

 Devonshire through Wales to the Lake District, 

 and thence northwards to the Highlands, the 

 Western Isles, the Orkneys, and the Shetlauds. 

 There is evidence to show that the Hen Harrier was 

 formerly a dweller in the fens of East Anglia, but 

 has now become extinct there, as it also has in 

 many moorland districts of the west and north. 

 In Ireland it is still found as a breeding species, 

 though in sadly reduced numbers ; and, notwith- 



