192 BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



varying from minute flecks to heavy clouds and blotches. 

 Is there, it has been asked, any connection between the 

 plumage type of the bird and the type of egg it lays ? 



[The Rough-legged Buzzard, so called because feathered 

 to the toes, is a cold-weather migrant to the British 

 Isles, and there is no reason to believe that it was ever 

 anything more, despite certain unauthentic statements to 

 the contrary.] 



THE HEN-HARRIER 



(Circus cyaneus). 



Plate 59. 



The Harriers form a well-marked group of the Birds- 

 of-Prey, and are distinguished by their slender build, their 

 length of leg and tail, the long, pointed wings, and the 

 slight ruff on the sides of the neck. Their method of 

 hunting is also characteristic, and consists in quartering 

 the open ground with great regularity, the flight being 

 leisurely and very low. Field-mice, eggs and young 

 birds, lizards, frogs, and even lai-ge insects are the prey. 



Three species are native to the British Isles ; but none 

 of them is now common, and it must suffice to select 

 one as a type. The Hen-Harrier was once fairly numerous 

 over much of our area, but game-preserving and agri- 

 cultural improvements have meant its virtual extermina- 

 tion. On only a few of the wildest moors in England and 

 Wales is it now found nesting, and in Scotland and 

 Ireland it is scarcely more flourishing. In winter the 

 species appears to be even less common, but on the 

 autumn migration it is more numerous. Slate-blue is 

 the predominant colour of the adult male ; but the female, 

 which the immature birds resemble, is brown in hue. 



