THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 71 



A bird in the collection of the Earl of Morley was 

 killed at Blagdon, a pair were killed at Chagford in 

 1871, there are two local birds in the Exeter 

 Museum, one of them killed near Exeter, December 

 1 875 ; Mr. Hamling records another, killed at 

 Heanton, near Barnstaple, December 1889, and my 

 collection includes a Hen Harrier killed in S. Devon. 



MONTAGU'S RknniER.— Circus dneraeens (Mont). 

 A RARE summer visitant, occasionally nesting 

 in Devon. Montagu added this Harrier to our list 

 on the strength of a bird killed near Kingsbridge, 

 and in 1808 observed a pair of these birds which he 

 thought were nesting. But Mr. Tucker, " the 

 author of the Ornithologia Danmoniensis '' (Montagu 

 Supplement. 1813), first ascertained positively that 

 the species bred with us. When visiting Montagu's 

 Museum in 1808, Mr. Tucker was shewn a specimen 

 and recognised that it was identical with a bird that 

 he had supposed to be only a variety of the Hen 

 Harrier. The gamekeeper of Mr. Templer of 

 Stover had in fact killed a pair of Montagu's Harriers 

 that very summer, and had nailed them up, with 

 their three young ones, against the garden wall. 

 Mr. Tucker had seen them thus suspended, and took 

 down the male bird as being an unusual specimen, 

 but the female and nestlings had been allowed to rot 

 upon the gibbet. Curiously enough, another nest 

 of Montagu's Harrier was discovered in the same 

 district in July, that same year. It was placed on 



