FALCONID.E. 



Mr. Selby, who has observed and obtained several exam- 

 ples in Northumberland, says, " it skims along the surface 

 of the grovmd like the Hen Hanier, but with more rapid 

 flight, and more strikingly buoyant."" Its food is small 

 birds and reptiles : the stomach of one examined by JMon- 

 tagu contained the remains of a Skylark ; and Mr. Orton 

 Aikin fovmd portions of five lizards in a male killed in Cam- 

 bridgeshire. The nest is placed on the ground, generally 

 among furze ; the eggs seldom exceeding four in number, very 

 similar, as might be expected, to those of the Hen Harrier ; 

 they are white, one inch seven lines in length, and one inch 

 four lines in breadth. The young, according to Mr. Je- 

 nyns, are hatched about the second week in June. 



Montagu*'s Harrier has been met with in the counties of 

 Devonshire and Cornwall, and Mr, Eyton informs me he 

 has received one specimen from Dolgelly ; but farther than 

 this to the westward I have not traced it, no examples as far 

 as I am aware having as yet been recognized by Ornitholo- 

 gists in Ireland. North of London it appears to be most 

 plentiful in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. At the latter 

 end of the summer of 1831, my friend Mr. Orton Aikin had 

 in his garden at Cambridge the young of each of our three 

 species of Harriers, and was bringing them up together. 

 They had been procured in the fens within a few miles. 

 Three or four specimens of Montagu's Harrier are recorded 

 by Mr. Selby as having been obtained in Durham and Nor- 

 thumberland ; but Mr. Macgillivray says it has not, as far as 

 he knows, been observed in Scotland. 



According to M. Temminck, and other naturalists, Mon- 

 tagu"'s Harrier is found in Poland, Germany, and France. 

 M. Baillon found it in the marshes of Abbeville, and con- 

 sidered it a summer visitor, appearing in April and departing 

 in October. M. Temminck says it is very common in the 



