FALCON IDAE I 55 



with a line downward sweep, an exceptional!}^ bold cock sometimes 

 almost striking an intruder. The cry, chiefly heard during incu- 

 bation, is slirill ; the food consists mainly of small mammals, but 

 partially of birds, reptiles, fish, frogs, insects, or even eggs ; the 

 nest, placed among reeds, corn or herbage, in gorse-coverts or on 

 lieathery or grassy slopes, is, according to circumstances, a pile or 

 layer of the surrounding vegetation lined with the finer portions, 

 and contains from three to six bluish-white eggs, rarely blotched 

 witb rufous. Nesting-sites in trees are on record. Three species 

 still breed in Britain, (*. ci/aneus, the Hen Harrier, O. cineraceus, 

 Montagu's Harrier, iind ('. aeruginosus, the Marsh Harrier or 

 " Moor Buzzard." The first two are much alike and easily con- 

 founded, the female in both being brown above and huffish with 

 d;ii'k streaks below, while the tail is crossed by five mnber bars. 

 Tiie male, whicli is bluish-grey with white rump and abdomen in 

 the Hen Harrier, but is streaked beneath with rufous in the more 

 slender Montagu's Harrier, is commonly considered a different 

 species from the female by rustics, who call it the " Kite." These 

 forms range over Europe, Asia, and North Africa ; but whereas the 

 first-named reaches about lat. 69° N. in summer, and occurs from 

 Morocco and Abyssinia to Canton in winter, its congener is not 

 found so far north, and migrates down to Cape Colony, Ceylon, and 

 Burma. 0. aerur/inosus, now nearly exterminated in Britain, ex- 

 tends from South Scandinavia and Archangel to Japan, and to the 

 Transvaal and Ceylon in the cold season. The upper parts are 

 brown with blackish primaries, the remainder of the wings and 

 the tail being grey ; the lower surface is buff with brownish stripes. 

 Old males have the head nearly cream-coloured, while the irides 

 in the female are rather hazel than yellow. The North American 

 C. hudsonhis is very near C. cyaneus ; South America possesses C. 

 cinereus, and, on the east, O. maculosics ; C. sivainsoni reaches from 

 South-East Europe to India and China, with Africa in winter ; G. 

 ranivorus and 0. mdnrics occupy South Africa ; C. spilonotus and 

 C. melanoleucus East Asia, the latter being coloured black, white, 

 and grey ; C. assimilis {jardinii) — marked with chestnut above, 

 and spotted with white below — inhabits Australia and Tasmania ; 

 ('. (/ouldi {((lyproximans) the same countries. New Zealand, and 

 Fiji ; C. v:olJi New Caledonia, C. sjjilothorax Papuasia, C. Iiumhloti 

 Madagascar, and C. maillardi (with its variety macrosceles) that 

 island, Keunion, and Anjuan (Joanna). 



