COMMON HARRIER. 303 



more or less tinged with brown, and the more distinct 

 are the bands on the tail. In very old individuals, the 

 lower parts jue pure white, the tail greyish-white, ex- 

 cepting the two middle feathers, and its bars obsolete. 

 The females viiry a little in their markings, some ha- 

 ving the whitish spots on the wing-coverts and scapu- 

 lars more distinct. The older the individual the lighter 

 are its brown colours, and the tail is more tinged with 

 grey. The feathers in both sexes become more or less 

 ragged and acuminate by rubbing, and the tints much 

 paler, towards the period of the moult. 



Habits — Should we, on a fine summer day, betake 

 us to the outfields bordering an extensive moor, on the 

 sides of the Pentland, the Ochill, or the Peebles Hills, 

 we might chance to see the harrier, although hawks 

 have been so much persecuted that one may sometimes 

 travel a whole day without meeting so much as a kes- 

 trel. But we are now wandering amid thickets of 

 furze and broom, vi'here the blue milkwort, the purple 

 pinguicula, the yellow violet, the spotted orchis, and 

 all the other plants that render the desert so delightful 

 to the strolling botanist, peep forth in modest beauty 

 from their beds of green moss. The golden plover, 

 stationed on the little knoll, on which he has just 

 alighted, gives out his shrill note of anxiety, for he has 

 come, not to welcome us to his retreats, but if possible 

 to prevent us from approaching them, or at least to 

 decoy us from his brood ; the lapwing, on broad and 

 dusky wing, hovers and plunges over head, chiding us 

 with its querulous cry; the whinchat flits from bush to 

 bush, warbles its little song from the top-spray, or sal- 



