VOL. X.] ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FOR 1916. 237 



only too thankful to be free of them, so Buzzards may be 

 held to do more good than harm. As late as April 1.5th 

 I had the melancholy satisfaction of examining two beautiful 

 specimens — one of them in change— lately trapped, hanging 

 suspended on a keeper's pole, but in several places orders 

 were given by proprietors to their gamekeepers to protect 

 them. May 5th was the latest date on which one was seen 

 in Norfolk (J. Vincent), and this was probably returning 

 from the south of England, or from France. 



Common Bfzzabd {B. b. buteo). 



On November 27th a Common Buzzard was shot at Ormesby 

 (E. C. .Saunders). It must be principally from southern 

 Sweden and the shores of the Baltic that Common Buzzards 

 come, for this species has not the same northern range as the 

 Rough-legged Buzzard. It has long ceased to be anything 

 but a rarity with us. 



Marsh-Harrier [Circus ceruginosus). 



In June it was reported that a pair of Marsh-Harriers — 

 much rarer now than Montagu's — were frequenting a Broad 

 near Stalham : there was, however, no evidence of there 

 having bred in 1916 there, nor on any of the Broads. 



In 1915 a pair did nest, I am glad to say, and hatched off. 

 The keeper told me a curious thing about these birds, which 

 was that there was one. male to two hens, both of which it 

 appears he kept supplied with food. This food — some young 

 marsh fowl or leveret, or perhaps a rat— was, I believe, 

 delivered in the air, the female Harrier rising from her nest 

 to receive it. 



The systematic waj^ in which Marsh-Harriers quarter the 

 reeds is very curious, and little that is eatable, be it fur or 

 feathers, comes amiss. Sir Thomas Browne represents them 

 as occasionally carrying off young otters {Natural History of 

 Norfolk, Southwell's edn., p. 56), and no doubt in his day 

 they were very plentiful, and otters were more abundant too. 



The Marsh-Harrier makes a somewhat larger nest than 

 Montagu's Harrier, with a better superstructure on which to 

 build it. The withered stalks of the '' gladden " (car ex) are 

 largely used, but the bird is not above eraplojdng odd things 

 such as a marshman's hay-bond, or a bit of rotten wood : 

 the stems of the marsh-hemlock are -also used. One nest 

 which I measured was nine inches in diameter, another 

 about eleven. 



It is perhaps not generally known that the male Marsh- 

 Harrier occasionally takes a share in incubation. It certainly 



