90 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



Falconidce. I do not know of an adult male 

 having been procured during the last ten years 

 in Sussex, and but few specimens of female, or 

 immature birds. Montao^u's harrier, althouojh a 

 scarce bird, is more frequently met with. A male 

 and female are in the possession of a gentleman 

 at Brighton, which were shot at Wiversfield, in 

 June, 1847. As both were mature, and had been 

 observed together for some time previously, it is 

 probable that their nest was in the immediate 

 vicinity. In September, 1844, a male was shot by 

 the Duke of Norfolk's head keeper, near Arundel, 

 and another in December of the same year by a 

 gentleman at West Wittering. I have seen a 

 beautiful specimen, an adult male, at Hollycombe, 

 which was obtained in that neighbourhood on 

 the borders of Wolmer Forest ; and another, a 

 female, which had been taken in a trap baited 

 with a rabbit's scut, at Oafliam, in March, 1842. 



The hen harrier is, as I have said, the least 

 rare of the three species; and examples, chiefly 

 immature, are shot or trapped every year, and 

 figure either in the gamekeeper's larder or the 

 cabinet of the collector. 



Through this group of the Falconidce we pass, 

 by an easy gradation, to the owls ; for the loose 

 and yielding character of the phunage, the pre- 

 sence of a flicial disk, or ring of short, curled 



