MARSH HARRIER. 119 
the sound limb soon terminated the struggle.’ This reminds 
one of the gallant Witherington immortalized in ‘Chevy Chase,’ 
‘For when his legs were shot away, he fought upon his stumps.’ 
Towards the end of the month of March, nidification com- 
mences, and incubation in April; the young are hatched in 
May. The nest is usually built in the high reeds which 
fringe the margin of the lake, pond, or swamp; in a tuft 
of rushes, fern, or furze; on a mound, at the edge of a 
bush, or on the top of the stump, or in the hollow of the 
branches of some tree in the former situation. It is a very 
rude fabrication, and composed of sticks, with reeds, flags, 
sedge, rushes, grass, or leaves; sometimes forming a mass 
a foot and a half above the ground. 
The eggs are from three to five in number, slightly tapered 
at one end, and generally perfectly white, or white with a slight 
tinge of blue. Bewick says that they are irregularly spotted 
with dusky brown; and Macgillivray describes some he had 
seen which had a few faint light brown marks. 
This species varies exceedingly in plumage. Male; weight, 
about twenty-one ounces; length; one foot seven to one foot 
nine inches; bill, bluish black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; head, 
but sometimes only the crown, yellowish or white; in some 
specimens the shafts are dark; in others, it, as well as the 
whole of the plumage, is ferruginous brown; in others it is 
yellowish white tinged with rufous, and streaked with dark 
brown; and in others, only a shade lighter than the rest 
of the brown plumage. The upper part of the neck is en- 
circled by a ruff of stiff feathers; nape, yellowish white, or 
white; chin and throat, nearly white. Breast, ferruginous 
brown, streaked with a darker shade; the shoulders are some- 
times white. Back, ferruginous brown, the feathers margined 
with a lighter shade 
The wings, when closed, reach nearly to the end of the tail; 
greater wing coverts, ferruginous brown, but in older birds 
partially or entirely ash grey; and in some tipped with reddish 
brown; sometimes yellow; lesser wing coverts, the same; 
primaries, brownish black, or dark grey in old birds; the third 
is the longest in the wing; the first and second are short; 
secondaries, ash grey, tipped in some cases with reddish brown; 
tertiaries, ferruginous brown, margined with a lighter shade; 
in old birds partially or entirely ash grey; larger and lesser 
under wing coverts, light brown. ‘Tail, ash grey; in some 
instances tipped with reddish brown; tail coverts, ferruginous 
