4IO 



HA WFINCH 



Circus. (After Swainson.) 



differ greatly in colour, so much so that for a long while the males 

 and females of one of the commonest and best known, the C. cyaneus 



above mentioned, were thought 

 to be distinct species, and were 

 or still are called in various 

 European languages by different 

 names. The error was main- 

 tained with the greater persist- 

 ency since the young males, far 

 more abundant than the adults, 

 wear much the same plumage as 

 their mother, and it was not 

 until after Montagu's observa- 

 tions were published at the beginning of the present centui'y 

 that the " Eingtail," as she was called (the Falco pygargus of 

 Linnseus), was generally admitted to be the female of the " Hen- 

 Harrier." But this was not Montagu's only good service as regards 

 this genus. He proved the hitherto unexpected existence of a 

 second species,^ subject to the same diversity of plumage. This 

 was called by him the Ash-coloured Falcon, but it now generally 

 bears his name, and is known as Montagu's Harrier, C. cineraceus. 

 In habits it is very similar to the Hen-Harrier, but it has longer 

 wings, and its range is not so northerly, for while the Hen-Harrier 

 extends to Lapland, Montagu's is but very rare in Scotland, though 

 in the south of England it is the most common species. Harriers 

 indeed in the British Islands are rapidly becoming things of the 

 past. Their nests are easily found, and the birds when nesting are 

 easily destroyed. In the south-east of Europe, reaching also to the 

 Cape of Good Hope and to India, there is a fourth species, the C. 

 swainsoni of some writers, the C. pallidns of others. In North 

 America C. cyaneus is represented by a kindred form, C. Imdsonius, 

 usually regarded as a good species, the adult male of which is 

 always to be recognized by its rufous markings beneath, in which 

 character it rather resembles 0. cineraceui<, but it has not the long 

 wings of that species. South America has in C. cinereus another 

 representative form, while China, India, and Australia possess more 

 of this type. Then there is a section in which the males have a 

 strongly contrasted black and grey plumage, and finally there is a 

 group of larger forms allied to the European C. xruginoms, wherein 

 a grey dress is less often attained, of which the South African C. 

 ranivoi'us and the New Zealand C. gouldi are examples. 



HAWFINCH, a bird so called from the belief that the fruit of 



1 A singular mistake, which has been productive of further error (Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. i. p. 64), was made by Albin, who drew his figure {Hist. B. ii. pi. 5) 

 from a specimen of one species and coloured it from a specimen of the other. 



