Montagu's harrier. 101 



reasons to be given for adopting this change Avill be consi- 

 dered even more than sufficient to justify it. 



The specific distinction of the Ash-coloured Harrier was 

 first demonstrated by Colonel Montagu, in consequence of 

 which M. Temminck, Vieillot, and Meyer, have called this 

 bird Le Busard de Montagu, and probably other Continen- 

 tal naturalists have done the same, as a tribute due to the 

 discernment of our English Ornithologist ; there seems to be 

 no good reason, therefore, that Montagu's own countrymen 

 should not now adopt this complimentary memorial. At 

 this time a fourth species of Harrier has been made known 

 in the twenty-second and last part of Mr. Gould's Birds of 

 Europe ; and others have been described as belonging to 

 different parts of Asia, Africo, and America, in each of which 

 the adult males, as in all the true Harriers, are more or less 

 ash-coloured ; this term, therefore, no longer conveys a spe- 

 cific distinction. To this I may add, that Montagu himself, 

 either by mistake or error of the press, has called this bird 

 cineraceus in his Ornithological Dictionary, cinerarias in 

 his Supplement to the Dictionary, and cinerareus in his 

 paper in the Linnean Transactions, volume the ninth, page 

 188; it will therefore be an advantage, as well as a gratifica- 

 tion, to call this bird in future Montagu's Harrier, and 

 Circus Montagui. 



Specimens of Montagu's Harrier of either sex may be 

 readily distinguished from those of the Hen Harrier, al- 

 though about equal to them in length, by being much more 

 slender in shape, and not near so heavy, the average weight 

 of Montagu's Harrier being about nine and a quarter ounces, 

 that of the Hen Harrier about thirteen ounces : the wings 

 are also longer in reference to the end of the tail, and the 

 third quill-feather of the wing is much more pointed ; but in 

 their habits, and the sort of country they are most partial 

 to, the two species are very similar. 



