RING-TAILED HARRIER. 371 



pure white, the tail greyish-white, with the bars obsolete. The 

 females exhibit less variation, but in old individuals the brown 

 of the upper parts is lighter, and the tail is tinged with grey. 



Changes of Plumage. — Toward the period of moulting, the 

 tints fade very considerably, and the feathers become irregu- 

 larly acuminate by being worn. 



Habits. — Having examined the form, and somewhat of the 

 structure of the Hen-Harrier, we are prepared for the exhibition 

 of its faculties. Kneel down here, then, among the long 

 broom, and let us watch the pair that have just made their ap- 

 pearance on the shoulder of the hill. Leave these beautiful 

 flowerets to the inspection of that lank-sided botanist, who 

 drags himself slowly along, with a huge tin cannister on his 

 back, and eyes ever bent on the ground. Should he wander 

 hitherward, he will be delighted to cull the lovely tufts of 

 maiden-pinks that surround us ; but we look heavenward, like 

 the astronomers. 



How beautifully they glide along, in their circling flight, 

 with gentle flaps of their expanded wings, floating as it were 

 in the air, their half-spread tails inclined from side to side, as 

 they balance themselves, or alter their course ! Now they are 

 near enough to enable us to distinguish the male from the 

 female. They seem to be hunting in concert, and their search 

 is keen, for they fly at times so low as almost to touch the 

 bushes, and never rise higher than thirty feet. The grey bird 

 hovers, fixing himself in air like the Kestrel ; now he stoops, 

 but recovers himself. A hare breaks from the cover, but they 

 follow her not, though doubtless were they to spy her young 

 one, it would not escape so well. The female now hovers for 

 a few seconds, gradually sinks for a short space, ascends, turns 

 a little to one side, closes her wings, and comes to the ground. 

 She has secured her prey, for she remains concealed among the 

 furze, while the male shoots away, flying at the height of three 

 or four yards, sweeps along the hawthorn hedge, bounds over it 

 to the other side, turns away to skim over the sedgy pool, where 

 he hovers a short while. He now enters upon the grass field, 



