38 From Far and Near, 



low over the cornfields and that wide dull stretch of brown battle ground, 

 the Montague's harrier, I never found his nesting site there, but it was 

 probably in the marshes of the Sominc or the Ancre. Nearer the coast 

 thero is a stretch of marsh betweon th<? sandhills and the cultivated land, 

 and at this place I snatched three evenings " Montague " hunting. 



Montagues : There were several cocks hawking about from time 

 to time over the marsh, but it was hard to find a place to. sit down 

 and spy from, owing to the flatness of the country and the numbers of 

 large bushes which obstructed one's view. On the first evening I saw 

 two cocks, met in the air by two hens, and undoubtejJly the latter were 

 fed by their husbands, but 1 was unable definitely to mark eitheri of 

 the hens down. Still, I liad; a niugh idea of the probable whereabouts 

 of the nest of t»ne of them, and on the second evening,- with a friend, 

 1 distinctly saw through the telescope the cock come over the place 

 where I' believed the hen to be sitting and thrust out its claw, in which 

 was something— I believe a lizard. In a moment she was up and circling 

 towards him. When just below and downwind of him, she turned a back 

 somersault, while he dropped his prey through the air for 6ft. or loft. 

 from his hand into hers. It was done without effort on the part of 

 either, and looked the easiest thing in the world, and so I suppose it is, 

 for I saw the same performance on several occasions, and she never 

 missed or looked like missing her dinner. Sometimes the gift was made 

 high in the air, sometimes near the ground, but the thrusting out of 

 the foot to show the prize and the method of dropping it from the 

 cock to the hen were always the same. When she had got it she planed 

 dowin as I first thought to the nest, but I was wrong, for after waiting 

 for five minutes, during which time she no doubt ate her dinner, appar- 

 ently by a pool of water, in order to wash her beak and feet,, she rose, 

 again, and after several evolutions lit in the marsh away from the water. 



Very, very carefully we marked the spot by this twig, that yellow 

 flower, and other minute details. We had walked to within ten yards when 

 she rose in fright and noisy rage from her nest of four eggs in thd 

 grass, and while we looked at them she never ceased her cries, i and circled' 

 continuously above us. The nest of flattened blades of grass and un- 

 /ntcresting-looking eg^s had an artificial appearance ; they reminded me of 

 a clutch of Easter eggs I was once unfortunate enough to find in a 

 haycock at a children's party, to the undoing of my stomach, for they 

 were bad. There are plenty of such nests to be seen at the proper season 

 in confectioners' shop windows. The bird returned in circles to the 

 nest before we were 300 yards .iway, and I saw the whole; process of 

 the feeding of theh en and also the nest on the following evening. These 

 harriers are apparently very punctual at meals, for this bird was fed" at 

 5-25 to a uninute on each of the three evenings, and I' wo.uld advise any- 

 one in search of a nest to p<xit himself, with a good glass, at 5-15 at 

 an advantageous spot not too n?a where he believes the nest to be. I 

 say. not too near, because the co k is much more shy, thougli less bad- 

 tempered, than the hen. Heaven grant that no egg-clutcher benefits by 



