410 HAWFKINCH 
differ greatly in colour, so much so that for a long while the males 
and females of one of the commonest and best known, the C. cyaneus 
above mentioned, were thought 
to be distinct species, and were 
or still are called in yarious 
European languages by different 
names. The error was main- 
tained with the greater persist- 
ency since the young males, far 
more abundant than the adults, 
wear much the same plumage as 
their mother, and it was not 
until after Montagu’s observa- 
tions were published at the beginning of the present century 
that the “Ringtail,’ as she was called (the Falco pygargus of 
Linnzus), was generally admitted to be the female of the “ Hen- 
Harrier.” But this was not Montagu’s only good service as regards 
this genus. He proved the hitherto unexpected existence of a 
second species,! subject to the same diversity of plumage. This 
was called by him the Ash-coloured Falcon, but it now generally 
bears his name, and is known as Montagu’s Harrier, C. cineraceus. 
In habits it is very similar to the Hen-Harrier, but it has longer 
wings, and its range is not so northerly, for while the Hen-Harrier 
extends to Lapland, Montagu’s is but very rare in Scotland, though 
in the south of England it is the most common species. Harriers 
indeed in the British Islands are rapidly becoming things of the 
past. Their nests are easily found, and the birds when nesting are 
easily destroyed. In the south-east of Europe, reaching also to the 
Cape of Good Hope and to India, there is a fourth species, the C. 
swainson of some writers, the C. pallidus of others. In North 
America C. cyaneus is represented by a kindred form, C. hudsonius, 
usually regarded as a good species, the adult male of which is 
always to be recognized by its rufous markings beneath, in which 
character it rather resembles O, cineraceus, but it has not the long 
wings of that species. South America has in C. cinereus another 
representative form, while China, India, and Australia possess more 
of this type. Then there is a section in which the males have a 
strongly contrasted black and grey plumage, and finally there is a 
group of larger forms allied to the European C. xruginosus, wherein 
a grey dress is less often attained, of which the South African C. 
ranivorus and the New Zealand C. gouldi are examples. 
HAWFINCH, a bird so called from the belief that the fruit of 
Crrcus. (After Swainson.) 
1 A singular mistake, which has been productive of further error (Cat. B. Br. 
Mus. i. p. 64), was made by Albin, who drew his figure (Hist. B. ii. pl. 5) 
from a specimen of one species and coloured it from a specimen of the other. 
