12 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



habits, with its large broad wings it certainly looks 

 majestic when in flight. It has occasionally been 

 seen in the neighbourhood of Harrow, and once at 

 Harrow Weald. One day in May I paid a visit to 

 an old keeper residing at the last-mentioned place, 

 with whom I used frequently to converse on the 

 subject of birds and shooting, and from whom at 

 odd times I have received some useful information. 

 His first exclamation on seeing me that day was, 

 " Oh, Sir ! you should have been here this morning, 

 w^e had such a beautiful Buzzard-hawk flew over 

 our garden." He knew the bird well, and had once 

 kept a pair in confinement. His son also saw the 

 bird, and told me of it before he knew that his 

 father had seen it. 



On my asking the old man how he could account 

 for the appearance of a straggler of this species, at 

 this time of j^ear, and in a neighbourhood where it 

 is so rarely observed, he replied that he had seen 

 the bird more frequently in the midland counties, 

 and he had remarked that whenever one of a pair 

 had been shot or trapped, the survivor wandered often 

 to a considerable distance in search of a new mate, 

 and he had little doubt but that such was the case 

 with the bird he had seen that morning. 



Hen Harrier, Falco cyaneus. Accidental. An 

 adult male Hen Harrier was shot several years since 

 in the parish of Willesden, and in 1862 another was 

 seen near Blackpot Farm, Kingsbury. This latter 



