HEN HARRIER. 319 



" Naturalist " (1838, p. 106), under date of 7th August 1837, 

 observed : — " Specimens are I'epeatedly shot on the moors 

 near Scarborough. They also breed there." In 1844 it 

 still bred on Hambleton and in the neighbourhood of Pickering 

 (see Allis's Report, and Nat. 1889, p. 330). Mr. Wm. H. Raw 

 of Lealholm in Cleveland, in speaking of a pair in his possession, 

 says : — " They were shot about thirty years since [about 

 1850] by my father Robert Raw, near Danby Beacon, where 

 they had a nest. I have heard my father say that at that 

 time scarcely a year passed without a breed of these Harriers 

 somewhere on the Danby Moors ; but of late years they have 

 been very scarce and rarely seen." These specimens, together 

 with an egg taken from the nest, are now in the possession of 

 Mr. W. Raw of Ruswarp. Mr. R. Standen, late of Goosnargh, 

 near Preston (now of the Manchester Museum), states (MS.), 

 that a nest supposed to have been of this species was found in 

 Langden Fell, on the borders of Lancashire, by a shepherd 

 lad ; it contained three bluish-white eggs. The lad described 

 both the nest and the bird pretty plainly. In Mr. J. C. 

 Stevens' sale catalogue of 25th April 1906, is a " lot " of four 

 eggs, marked " Hen Harrier, Dentdale, Yorks., 28th April 

 1888." From inquiries I afterwards made of the late owner 

 of the eggs, the date appears to be perfectly reliable. 



Writing in 1828, R. Leyland mentioned it as rare in the 

 Halifax district ; and in 1840 H. Denny of Leeds described 

 it as rare, mentioning Halifax, Thorp Arch, and Selby as 

 localities in which it had occurred. 



In 1844 T. Allis reported as to its status on the low grounds 

 and carrs near Doncaster, in the East Riding, near Sheffield, 

 and near Huddersfield. 



On 14th August 1834, one, now in Admiral Oxley's collec- 

 tion at Ripon, was shot in the High Street at Redcar. 



Two fine males were killed near Bridlington in the winter 

 of 1846-47, as recorded by the Rev. F. O. Morris {Zool. 1847, 

 p. 1692). 



Mr. W. Walton of Middleton-in-Teesdale, writing in 1903, 

 says his grandfather used regularly to shoot the " Ringtail," 

 on the moors on the Yorkshire side of the Tees. 



