ARGENTINE HEN-HARRIER 43 
ARGENTINE HEN-HARRIER 
Circus cinereus 
Above light bluish grey with darker mottlings ; primaries blackish ; 
tail grey with four black cross bands and tipped with white; beneath 
thickly banded with white and rufous bars; bill black, eyes and feet 
yellow; length 18, wing 12 inches. Female larger; above dark 
brown, with light brown spots. 
THERE are two species of Harriers in Argentina, the 
Broad-winged Harrier, C. macropterus, with a black 
upper and white lower plumage, and the present 
species, named Cinereous Harrier in Argentine Orni- 
thology, but I prefer now to call it the Argentine 
Hen-Harrier, as at a distance it closely resembles 
the European Hen-Harrier, although a handsomer 
bird. 
This hawk is found throughout the Argentine 
Republic, and is also common in Patagonia and the 
Falkland Islands. On the pampas it is, I think, the 
most common bird of prey, after the excessively 
abundant Milvago chimango. Like the Chimango 
it also prefers an open unwooded country, and 
resembles that bird not a little in its general appear- 
ance, and when in the brown stage of plumage may 
be easily mistaken for it. In the Falklands it has 
even acquired the Carrion Hawk’s habits, for Darwin 
distinctly saw one feeding on a carcase there, very 
much to his surprise. On the pampas I have always 
found it a diligent bird-hunter, and its usual mode 
of proceeding is to drive up the bird from the grass 
