384 



FALCON AND EAGLE GROUP 



hand, in the somewhat larger female the upper-parts are dark greyish 

 brown, with white streaks on the nape of the neck and a white border 

 to the well-developed face-ruff; the lower part of the back is, however, 

 white with rusty markings, while the brown tail carries five dark 

 transverse bars and has light tips to the feathers ; a paler tint 

 characterises the lower surface, which is streaked and blotched with 

 reddish ; the legs and cere are yellow, but the eyes are believed, to be 

 brown, as they certainly are in young birds of both sexes. The latter 



are generally similar to the 

 adult females, but all the mark- 

 ings on the breast arc in the 

 form of Shaft-streaks to the 

 feathers ; cocks are distinguish- 

 able by their smaller size, while 

 in the hens the tail-bars are 

 rufous. 



Having a breeding-range 

 which embraces the greater 

 part of Europe, that is to say, 

 from Lapland in the north to 

 central France and the Alps 

 and Carpathians in the south, 

 as well as the whole of Cen- 

 tral and northern Asia, in- 

 clusive of the Himalaya and 

 Japan, the hen-harrier has dis- 

 appeared as a nesting-species 

 from most parts of the British 

 Islands with startling rapidity, 

 almost before our very eyes. 

 In winter the species migrates to north-eastern Africa, south-western 

 Asia and China, a few stragglers visiting the plains of northern India. 

 As regards the British Isles, the enclosure of waste lands, which form 

 its chief haunts, and in later years incessant persecution on the part of 

 gamekeepers and collectors, appear to have been the chief factors which 

 have led to its extermination in many districts and its rarity in others. 

 So late as the year 1824 as many as a dozen harriers are recorded as 

 nesting at once on a common of some sixty acres in Lincolnshire ; and 

 up to about 1850 the York.shirc moors were favourite breeding-haunts 

 of the species, the last-reported nest having been taken in that year. 

 In Norfolk a nest was, however, recorded in 1861, and a second from. 



HEN-HARRIEK (ADULT FEMALE). 



