FALCONID.'E. 



319 



\V^^ 



MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 



Circus cineraceus (Montagu). 



This species, first distinguished from the Hen-Harrier by Mon- 

 tagu, is smaller and more slender than that bird, with proportionately 

 longer wings ; and in any stage of plumage it may infallibly be recog- 

 nized by the outer web of its 5th primary having no emargination. 



Montagu's Harrier was never a resident in the British Islands, as 

 erroneously stated by Seebohm ; on the contrary, it is merely a spring 

 and summer visitor to Europe (hardly excepting the Mediterranean 

 basin), and its northerly range is not extensive. To us it comes in 

 April, and a pair or two make their nest — often fruitlessly — almost 

 every year in East Anglia ; while instances are on record of it 

 having bred of late years in Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hants — 

 including the Isle of Wight — and other counties of England, as well 

 as in Wales ; and it even reaches to Yorkshire, beyond which it is 

 rare. In the Solway district a female, which had evidently been 

 sitting, was shot, according to Mr. R. Service, on June 15th 1882, 

 and there have been a few other occurrences ; but the species is un- 

 known in Scotland, except in the south, and statements that it has 

 bred in Sutherland or visited Caithness are unfounded. In Ireland 



