ANECDOTE. 14;3 



In other parts of the county the ring-tail — or 

 female hen-harrier — is indiscriminately called a 

 buzzard or a kite, and the various stages of plu- 

 mage observable in the male of this bird and its 

 congeners, in their progress to maturity, appear 

 to have originated as many imaginary species. 

 The fact is, that in the good old times when all 

 these hawks abounded in the land, so little at- 

 tention had been paid to the study of Natural 

 History, that specific distinctions were exceed- 

 ingly vague and obscure ; a sliglit resemblance in 

 colour being frequently considered a greater proof 

 of affinity between two individuals than simi- 

 larity of form and structure: and this error, in- 

 creased by the ever- varying state of the plumage 

 in immature birds of this family, gave rise to a 

 host of provincial names, which in most cases 

 have survived the ordinary occurrence of the 

 species to which they were originally applied ; 

 and the mysteries of which — with oral tradition 

 alone for a guide— none but an ornithological 

 (Edipus could ever hope to unravel 



About two winters ago, I had been shooting 

 during the greater part of a bright frosty day, 

 with a friend on one of the wild beats in the 

 weald, and after a good, old-fashioned, fagging 

 day's sport, in which pheasants, woodcocks, hares 

 and rabbits had contributed in fair proportions 



