MARSH HARRIER 147 
ing, or whatever he may have deemed it; but I do not recollect 
that I ever caught sight of the bird. 
Squirrels, rats, mice, moles, shrews, and any small birds that he 
can surprise asleep, with insects, form his principal food. These he 
hunts by night, and retires for concealment by day to some thick 
tree or shrubbery, either in the hill country or the plains. The 
nest, composed principally of the dried pellets of undigested bones 
and fur, which all the Owls are in the habit of disgorging, is usually 
placed in a hollow tree: here the female lays about four eggs, from 
which emerge, in due time, as many grotesque bodies enveloped in 
a soft plush of grey yarn: destined, in due time, to become Tawny 
Owls. The full-grown females are larger than the males, and, 
being of a redder tinge, were formerly considered a distinct species. 
The old birds utter their loud hoo-hou! or to-whit, in-who ! chiefly 
in the evening. 
ORDER ACCIPITRES 
FAMILY FALCONID2 
Sus-Famity BUTEONINZE 
MARSH HARRIER 
CIRCUS Z:RUGINOSUS 
Head, neck, and breast yellowish white, with numerous longitudinal brown 
streaks ; wing-coverts reddish brown ; primary quills white at the base, 
the rest black; tail and secondaries ash-grey ; lower plumage reddish 
brown ; beak bluish black; cere, irides, and feet yellow; claws black. 
Length twenty inches. Eggs white. 
THE Harriers are bold predatory voracious birds, having somewhat 
of the appearance and movements of the Hawks. On a closer 
inspection, however, they are seen to approach nearer in character 
to the Owls. In the first place, they hunt their prey more in the 
morning and evening than at any other time of day. In the next 
place, these twilight habits are associated with a large head, and 
a somewhat defined face formed by a circle of short feathers ; 
while the plumage generally is soft and loose, and their mode of 
hunting resembles that of the nocturnal predatory birds, rather 
than that of the Falcons. They are remarkable for the great 
difference which exists between the plumage of the two sexes, which 
has made the task of discriminating the number of species very 
ciffcult. Less active than the Falcons, they yet carry on a for- 
