HEN-HARRIER. 129 
British Islands, viz. the Pallid Harrier, C. swainsoni. The adult male is 
easily distinguished by its barred upper tail-coverts and the female and 
immature bird by the shape of the fifth primaries. In C. cyaneus the 
outer web is notched; in C. swainsoni and C. cineraceus it is plain. 
The Hen-Harrier (a more appropriate name for which would be the 
Mountain-Harrier) has a much more northern range than the other 
European and Asiatic species; I have often seen it on the tundras of 
North Russia and Siberia, more than a hundred miles beyond the Arctic 
circle. In its habits it differs little from the other European Harriers, but 
is very partial to hill-sides, hunting them systematically with great per- 
severance like a pointer, returning backwards and forwards over the same 
ground. I have never seen them soar very high. They fly remarkably 
steadily, with slow regular beats of the wings, like a Heron, turning sharply 
with a twist of the tail like a Kite, now and then hovering like a Kestrel, 
and anon skimming over the ground like a Grouse. In the valley of the 
Petchora we used to see them resting on a manure-heap or flying over the 
cultivated ground near the town ; and in Siberia I have shot down at them 
from the top of the river-bank as they beat up and down stream on the 
ground between the frozen river and the forest, in search of Snow-Bun- 
tings. The Hen-Harrier is a migratory bird. According to Goebel they 
pass through South-west Russia during the last half of March, one or two 
occasionally remaining to breed. At Kazan they arrive in the middle of 
April, and breed in some numbers. Bogdanow says they are occasionally 
seen in theforests, but soon after their arrival hunt the plains and the steppes 
with great regularity. In the valleys both of the Petchora and the Yene- 
say we did not sce them until the last week of May; but it must be remem- 
bered that we were on the Arctic circle. On the autumn migration they 
pass through Germany during the month of September. I have never 
found the nest of the Hen-Harrier ; but it is generally reported to be a late 
breeder. Harvie-Brown gives the 24th of May as the date when the first 
egg was laid in a nest which he found in Sutherlandshire; and Goebel 
found two nests, in which the full number of eggs was not laid, in the 
middle of June in South-west Russia. The site usually chosen is a dry 
moor or amongst the heather; and it has often been found in a cornfield. 
The size and material used vary with the locality. Harvie-Brown describes 
one on the bare hill-side as merely consisting of a few loosely arranged 
heather-stems with a shallow depression in the centre lined with wiry dry 
grass broken into small pieces. Another, placed in deep heather, was more 
than a foot high, and composed of stout rank stems and roots of heather. 
Goebel found one nest in the middle of a cornfield, and another concealed 
in the long grass on a dried-up marsh. He says they were two feet and a 
half wide and nearly a foot high, made of dry straw and plants, very flat, 
and lined with a few feathers. It is said that the female alone sits on the 
VOL. I. K 
