BIRDS OF PREY 



21 



harrier has succeeded in nesting a few times in recent seasons 

 in parts of southern England, where for a long while it was 

 itself harried out of existence ; but here the last of increasing 

 species comes to an end. The hen-harrier now only occa- 

 sionally nests in England, though it still holds its own in 

 small numbers in Ireland and the Hebrides. The marsh- 

 harrier lingers on some of the Irish bogs; but Ireland has 

 lost the last of its sea-eagles, though they still maintain one 

 or two eyries in Scotland. The osprey seems to have aban- 

 doned its last Scottish haunts ; the law as administered has 





MONTAGU'S HARRIER 



been impotent to protect the migrating birds from gunners 

 as they pass through England. Some of the smaller wood- 

 land hawks have suffered equally with the great fishers. 

 The honey-buzzard now only nests in England very rarely 

 and casually ; it has been extirpated by the collector in its 

 last regular home in the New Forest. Even the sparrow- 

 hawk is unfamiliar to many people who watch birds con- 

 stantly in their own districts ; though a little bird, as hawks 

 go, it is one of the few undeniably mischievous and destruc- 

 tive species, and its misdeeds prevail against it, so that too 

 few people show it a measure of mercy for its attractive 

 and dashing ways. The balance has swung too far since 

 sparrow-hawks and harriers were the daily robbers of the 

 farm-wife's chickens and ducklings and the kite systematically 



