MARSH -HARRIER. 307 



migrants winter south of the breeding area in Africa and Asia. 

 In the British Isles, where the bird at one time nested in suitable 

 places in England and Ireland, it is now best known as a rare 

 spring and autumn visitor, though a few pairs still nest, or 

 attempt to nest, in Norfolk and the wilder bogs in Ireland. 



The Harriers are variable birds ; age and sex descriptions in 

 most books are misleading, and the examination of a series of 

 skins explains the reason ; no two ^ birds seem exactly ahke. 

 On the wing, however, when details are hidden, the male 

 Marsh-Harrier looks a large brown and grey bird with black 

 wing-tips in marked contrast to the grey of the wing. The 

 head certainly appears paler than the back, but does not look 

 white, as would be imagined from reading descriptions taken 

 from skins. The female looks larger and much darker ; her 

 browner wings do not show up the blacker primaries. The 

 young bird, shown on the plate, is easier to recognise, for the 

 pale head appears almost white against the rich brown of the 

 rest of the plumage. Dense reed-beds or luxuriant marshes 

 are the haunts of the " Moor-Buzzard," not the upland grouse- 

 moors ; it flies low just above the reeds, quartering the ground 

 with strong, purposeful flight. It takes a few deliberate powerful 

 strokes, then sails with wings uplifted, held at an angle of 30 to 

 45 degrees above the plane of its body. A Coot or Moorhen, 

 a vole, frog, or even a dragon-fly catches its eye, and instantly 

 it drops upon its prey, but it does not attempt to fly a bird 

 down in the open. In the wild Spanish marshes it waits upon 

 the sportsman, retrieving wounded fowl for its own benefit. In 

 spring it subsists largely upon eggs and nestlings of marsh 

 birds, and on these it feeds its young ; it is indeed a harrier 

 of the marsh. On this level expanse, where tall reeds obstruct 

 the view, the low-flying bird is not easily seen, but I found that 

 the alarm cries of excitable Redshanks were a sure indication 

 of its presence ; when the Harrier passed over it was usually 

 followed by one or two yelping Redshanks whose presence it 



