10 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



in the New Forest. Unlike other raptorial birds, its 

 usual food is the larvae of bees and wasps, coleopterous 

 and lepidopterous insects, and earthworms. It is to 

 be regretted that so harmless a bird should not be 

 exempt from persecution ; but the fact of its being a 

 hawk is sufficient in the eyes of game-preservers and 

 collectors to ensure its destruction. There are Dor- 

 setshire specimens preserved in the Bryanston and 

 Rempston collections, and in the County Museum. 

 Two passed through the hands of Mr. Rolls, bird- 

 stuffer, of Weymouth, which were killed in the 

 neighbourhood of Weymouth ; one was trapped in 

 Chetter Wood in the autumn of 1861, and another 

 at Kimmeridge in the autumn of 1868. Its local 

 name is "Capped Buzzard." 



MARSH HARRIER. Circus ceruginosus, (L.) 



Yarrell, i. p. 127 ; Harting, p. 7 ; Dresser, v. p. 415 ; Scehohm, 

 i. p. 124; Ibis List, p. 92; Falco ceriiginosus, Puiteneijs 

 List, p. 3. 



In Pulteney's time the Marsh Harrier was not un- 

 frequently seen on the wet moors of the county ; 

 drainage has very much limited its favourite haunts 

 since then. One in the Bryanston collection was 

 caught in a trap, September 22, 1808. It still fre- 

 quents the salt marshes between Wareham and Arne, 

 where I have not unfrequently seen it. One was 

 killed at Littlesea, Studland, in 1873, and another 

 (a male) at Parkston in 1877. 



