FALCONID.^. 



:£oi3^ 



THE MARSH-HARRIER. 

 Circus .t^ruginosus (Linn^us). 



This species — better known as the Moor-Buzzard, while 'moor' 

 retained a signification allied to 'mire' or 'marsh' — is now all 

 but banished from the number of our indigenous birds. The 

 principal cause of its decrease in England has been the drainage of 

 the fens in the eastern districts, and the reclamation of the marshy 

 wastes in Somerset, Dorset, Shropshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire and 

 some other counties, where it used to breed until within the last 

 twenty or thirty years. At the present day a pair or two, probably 

 colonists from Holland, almost annually attempt to rear their broods 

 in the Broad district of Norfolk, but are rarely, if ever, allowed to 

 succeed; and I know of no other county in which this Harrier has 

 recently nested, though migrants from the Continent occur in spring 

 and autumn. In Scotland it is very rare, even in the Solway district, 

 which is not altogether unsuited to its habits ; the only example Mr. 

 Booth ever saw was an immature bird in East Lothian ; single 

 instances are on record from Dumbartonshire and from Scalpa, 

 near Skye ; Mr. Macleay of Inverness has received but one in all 

 his long experience ; and Mr. G. Sim of Aberdeen tells me that 



B B 



