128 BRITISH BIRDS. 
CIRCUS CYANEUS. 
HEN-HARRIER. 
(Pxarte 6.) 
Accipiter falco torquatus (2 ), Briss. Orn. i. p. 345 (1760). 
Falco cyaneus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 126 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Temminck, Yarrell, (Gould), (Gray), (Newton), (Sharpe), &e. 
Aquila variabilis, Schrank, Fauna Boica, i. p. 108 (1798). 
Circus gallinarius, Savign. Ois. d’Egypte, p. 31 (1810). 
Pygargus dispar, Koch, Syst. bater. Zool. p. 128 (1816). 
Circus eegithus, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. §c. Brit. Mus. pp. 9, 10 (1816). 
Falco strigiceps, Ness. Orn. Suec. i. p. 21 (1817). 
Accipiter variabilis (Schr.), Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. p. 364 (1826). 
The Hen-Harrier was formerly a regular summer visitor to the British 
Islands, a few even remaining through the winter, and it has only very 
recently been exterminated in the breeding-season from most parts of 
England. Now it is principally seen on the autumn migration, but is still 
said to breed occasionally in some of the wilder districts, such as Devon- 
shire, Cornwall, and the Lake district. In Wales, the Highlands of 
Scotland, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and in the mountainous parts of 
Treland it still breeds, although in decreasing numbers. It has not been 
recorded from the Faroes ; but in the Shetland Islands, where it formerly 
bred, it has become only an autumn visitor. 
On the continent it is a summer visitor to Holland, Jutland, Northern 
Norway, Poland, Northern and Central Russia, and North Turkestan, the 
whole of Siberia, and the north island of Japan. Its breeding-range 
extends north of the Arctic circle, but not quite so far as the limit of 
forest-growth. In Spain, France, Germany, Southern Sweden, Italy, 
Turkey, South Russia, Palestine, and Southern Turkestan it is principally 
known as passing through on the spring and autumn migration. In all 
these countries a few remain during the summer to breed, and a few are 
found during winter; but these latter are probably visitants from further 
north, so that the bird cannot anywhere be strictly called a resident. It is 
found in winter only in Northern Africa as far south as Abyssinia, Sar- 
dinia, Greece, Asia Minor, Northern India, Mongolia, China, and the 
central island of Japan. 
On the American continent, from the Arctic circle to Panama, a very 
neatly allied species, which many writers consider only subspecifically dis- 
tinct from our bird, occurs. This species, C. hudsonius, differs in having 
the lower parts striped with rufous, similar to Montagu’s Harrier. A 
species having the underparts still more streaked, C. cinereus, is found in 
the southern half of South America. Another very near ally of this 
species occurs in the eastern hemisphere, having very nearly the same 
range as Montagu’s Harrier, but has not yet been recorded from the 
