18 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



of the Hen Harrier which I have been able to find. 

 I have never shot it myself or seen it alive. It is, 

 however, included in Professor Ansted's list, but 

 marked as occurring in Guernsey only. 



14. Montagu's Harrier. Circus cineraceus, Mon- 

 tagu. French, " Busard Montagu," " Busard 

 cendre." — Montagu's Harrier is certainly a more 

 frequent visitant to the Islands than either the Hen 

 Harrier or the Marsh Harrier. Miss C. B. Carey 

 records one in the ' Zoologist ' for 1873 as having been 

 shot in Alderney in July of that year. She'adds that 

 it was an adult male in full plumage, and that she 

 saw it herself at Mr. Couch's shop. In the 

 * Zoologist ' for 1874 she records another Montagu's 

 Harrier — a young one — shot in Herm in July of 

 that year. She adds that — " It was brought to 

 Mr. Couch to skin. He found a whole Lark's egg, 

 and also the shell of another, in its throat. He 

 showed me how the whole egg was sticking in the 

 empty shell of the broken one." 



All the Harriers seem to have a special liking for 

 eggs. In his notice of the Marsh Harrier Professor 

 Newton says, in his edition of Yarrell,' that birds' 

 eggs are an irresistible delicacy ; and, in speaking 

 of the food of the present species, he says it con- 

 sists chiefly of grasshoppers, reptiles, small mam- 

 mals, birds and their eggs ; these last, if their size 

 permit, being often swallowed whole, as was the 



