FALCONID.'E. 



3^7 



THE HEN-HARRIER. 



Circus cyaneus (Linnceus). 



The Hen-Harrier frequents higher and less marshy ground than 

 the preceding species, and although it used to breed in (or on the 

 rising ground above) the fen-district of Eastern England, before the 

 spread of agricultural improvements, it was probably never common 

 there, Montagu's Harrier being often mistaken for it. Of late years 

 its numbers have been so far thinned by game-preservers that in 

 England and Wales it is now only to be found nesting on a few of. 

 the wildest and most extensive moorlands and wastes. Even in Scot- 

 land and its islands, where this Harrier was formerly numerous, it is 

 rapidly decreasing as a breeding-species ; but young birds are some- 

 times fairly abundant as migrants in autumn, when the adults also 

 come down from the moors to the lowlands, and the male (sometimes 

 called " the Goshawk ") attracts attention by his pale grey plumage. 

 These remarks apply equally to Ireland. Few — and those chiefly 

 adults — are to be met with in the British Islands during winter. 



In Scandinavia and Northern Russia the Hen-Harrier is found in 

 summer about as far north as lat. 69°, though rare near that limit ; 

 and it is only south of 62'' that it becomes at all numerous in the 



