HARRIERS. II 



HEN HARRIER. Circus cyaneus, (L.) 



YarrcU, i. p. 132; Hariing, p. 7 ; Dresser, v. p. 431 ; Seelohm, 

 i. p. 128 ; Ibis List, p, 93 ; Falco cyaneus, Pulfenei/'s List, 

 P- 3- 



The difference of plumage between the male and 

 female Hen Harrier led ornithologists in Bewick's 

 time to regard them as two distinct species, desig- 

 nating the former the " blue hawk," the latter the 

 " ring-tail." It is not unfrequently seen quartering 

 the fields like a pointer. One was shot at Henbury 

 in 1850 ; a second at Leeson, Swanage, in 1866 ; a 

 pair were shot at Alderholt, near Fordingbridge, in 

 the summer of 1872 ; and a female at Wareham the 

 same year. In 1875 one was procured at Hyde, and 

 another at Whatcombe. A male and two females, 

 also obtained in the county, are in the County 

 Museum. A pair of these birds nested on a piece of 

 moorland in the Poole estuary ; the female was un- 

 fortunately killed on the nest, having laid two eggs, 

 which were also destroyed. The nest, composed of 

 bents of grass, was placed in a slight natural depres- 

 sion. I saw the male bird twdce after the death 

 of its mate, near enough to distinguish it from 

 Montagu's Harrier, which is more slightly built and 

 longer in the wing. A male Hen Harrier frequented 

 the neighbourhood of Bere Regis for several days in 

 tlie early part of June 1887. 



