FALCON I D.E. 



309 



MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 



Circus cineraceus (Montagu). 



This species, first distinguished from the Hen-Harrier by Mon- 

 tagu, is smaller and more slender, with proportionately longer wings ; 

 and in any stage of plumage it may infallibly be recognized by the 

 outer web of its 5th primary having no notch or einargination. 

 Montagu's Harrier was never a resident in the Jjritish Islands, as 

 erroneously stated by a recent author ; on the contrary, it is merely 

 a spring and summer visitor to the northern half of Europe, nor is 

 its range in that direction extensive. To ns it comes in April, and 

 a pair or two make a nest — often fruitlessly — almost every year in 

 Norfolk ; while instances are on record of its having bred of late 

 years in Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hants — including the Isle of 

 Wight — and other counties of England, as well as in Wales ; and 

 it even reaches to Yorkshire, beyond which it is rare. In the Sohvay 

 district a female, which had evidently been sitting, was shot, accord- 

 ing to Mr. R. Service, on June 15th 1882, and there have been a few 

 other occurrences ; but exce])t in the south it is unknown in Scot- 

 land, and statements that it has bred in Sutherland or visited Caithness 

 are unfounded. In Ireland only three examples have been obtained, 



