18 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Highland Counties of Scotland, the Orkneys, Shetlands, and the 

 Hebrides. In Ireland it still nests sparingly. Its range extends 

 over the greater part of Europe and across Siberia to Corea and 

 Japan. In winter it visits the Mediterranean countries and N.E. 

 Africa, the Indian Peninsula, and China. 



The site of the nest usually chosen is a dry moor or amongst 

 the heather, and it has often been found in a cornfield. Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie-Brown describes one, placed on the bare hill-side, as 

 merely consisting of a few loosely-arranged heather-stems, with 

 a shallow depression in the centre, lined with wiry dry grass, 

 broken into small pieces. Another, placed in deep heather, was 

 more than a foot high, and composed of stout rank stems and 

 roots of heather. 



The number of eggs is usually five, but four and six are often 

 found. They are bluish-white, and are, on an average, interme- 

 diate in size between those of the Marsh and Montagu's Harriers. 

 They vary in length from 1*8 to 1"65 inch, and in breadth from 

 15 to 1"4 inch. 



MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 

 {Circus cineraceus.)* 



Plate 5, Figs. 1, 3. 



Montagu's Harrier still occasionally breeds in Great Britain. 

 On the continent of Europe it inhabits principally the temperate 

 portions, nesting and departing south in winter. It reaches 

 Turkestan and the Yenesei Valley to the eastward, and winters 

 in the Indian Peninsula and in Africa down to the Cape. 



In Germany, Montagu's Harrier is a somewhat late breeder. 

 The only time I have taken the nest was on the 23rd of May. 

 There was no hole whatever in the ground ; the rye had only 

 been trampled down, and a slight but somewhat neat nest made 

 of corn-stalks, lined with a little dry straw. The nest was rather 

 more than nine inches in diameter, and about two inches and 

 a half deep in the middle. 



The number of eggs varies from four to six. They may be 

 readily distinguished from the eggs of the other British Harriers 

 by their decidedly smaller size. The largest egg in my collection 



* Circus pygargus (Linn.)— Sharpe, Handb. Brit. B., II., p. 129. 



