Montagu's harrier. 123 



Mr. J. Gregson, gunsmith, brought a female Montagu's 

 Harrier, shot by Mr. Eli Heyworth's keeper on Whiten- 

 dale Moor, on 10th inst. ; hatching spot bare. The keeper 

 said that the bird was seen to dash at the head of a sheep ; 

 this was done, doubtless, to drive it away from the nest, 

 for I feel sure the bird was breeding. Mr. Heyworth 

 gave me the bird, of which I have skin and sternum."! 



GENUS BUTEO. 

 BUZZARD. 



BuTEO VULGARIS, Leacli. 



As a breeding species the Common Buzzard has been 

 exterminated in every part of Lancashire except those 

 few peaks in the north which lie within the county, and 

 which form a portion of the Lake mountains. There a 

 few pairs still remain, but Dr. C. A. Parker of Gosforth, 

 who has paid great attention to raptorial birds, considers 

 them decreasing ; and indeed, considering the persecution 

 they suffer, it is a wonder that any are now in existence 

 at all. In the Forest of Bowland, and generally on that 

 wild range of hills which lies between the valleys of the 

 Ribble, Wyre and Lune, the Common Buzzard is shot 

 or trapped almost every year. The Eev. J. D. Banister, 

 writing between 1840 and 1850, says that it " breeds in 

 Wyresdale," and Mr. John Weld is confident that a nest 

 which was taken in Buckbanks in Leagram a few years 

 ago was of this species. In a paper read before the 

 Kendal Nat. Hist. Soc. on December 8, 1839, Mr. W. 

 Pearson says that a few years before it l)red in the larch 

 plantations at Lamb How, but that it had been exter- 

 minated in the interests of sport : he further remarks 



