HEN HARRIER. 119 



Family— FALCONID^. 



Genus— CIRCUS. 



[Circus /eruginosus — Marsh Harrier.] 



Very scarce in Great Britain and Ireland. 



CIRCUS CYANEUS— Hen Harrier. 



The Hen Harrier, and its female, called Ringtail, seem like 

 different birds, from their varied plumage. They frequent flat 

 marshy situations, low moors and commons, and are consequently 

 lessening everywhere in numbers, from the increased cultivation of 

 waste lands. They fly low and hunt the ground regularly, and 

 build on the ground. Their food consists chiefly of small birds, of 

 which they destroy many, small animals and reptiles. One killed 

 near London is stated by Yarrell to have had as many as twenty 

 lizards in its stomach. 



The Hen Harrier is now becoming very scarce in Hereford- 

 shire. Twelve or fifteen years ago, says Mr. Ley, it was not 

 unfrequently met with in the Ross district, at Breinton, Monnington, 

 and Bredwardine. Mr. T. F. Phelps shot a slate-coloured Hawk 

 at the Weir End, near Ross (1873), which proved to be a Hen 

 Harrier. In the Autumn of 1878, one was taken near Whitney ; 

 and in 1881, a fine male specimen was shot by the keeper of 

 Sir Thomas H. Crawley-Boevy, Bart., of Flaxley Abbey, so near 

 to the borders of Herefordshire, that it may fairly be noticed 

 among our local birds. 



Thirty or forty years ago, the Hen Harrier was occasionally 

 to be met with between Ross and Monmouth, but the keepers 

 connected with the large estates on the banks of the Wye, have 

 succeeded but too well in exterminating the larger birds of prey 

 that formerly visited those localities, and making their appearance 

 in the county, now, very rare. 



