iv FALCONIDAE US6 
with a fine downward sweep, an exceptionally bold cock sometimes 
almost striking an intruder. The cry, chiefly heard during incu- 
bation, is shrill; the food consists mainly of small mammals, but 
partially of birds, reptiles, fish, frogs, insects, or even egos; the 
nest, placed among reeds, corn or herbage, in gorse-coverts or on 
heathery 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 eges, rarely blotched 
with rufous. Nesting-sites in trees are on record. Three species 
still breed in Britain, C. cyaneus, the Hen Harrier, ( cineraceus, 
Montagu’s Harrier, and C. 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 buftish with 
dark streaks below, while the tail is crossed by five umber bars. 
The male, which 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 occwrs 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. C. aeruginosus, 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. hudsonius is very near C. cyaneus; South America possesses C 
cinereus, and, on the east, C. maculosus ; C. swainsoni reaches from 
South-East Europe to India and China, with Africa in winter; C. 
ranivorus and C. maurus 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 ; 
C. gouldi (approximans) the same countries, New Zealand, and 
Fiji; C. wolfi New Caledonia, C. spilothorax Papuasia, C. humblote 
Madagascar, and CL maillardi (with its variety macroscetes) that 
island, Réunion, and Anjuan (Joanna). 
