26 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



was a Hen-Harrier, for which he could hardly be blamed, 

 his paper having been read seven years before the matter 

 Avas cleared np by Montagu. 



Mr, Knox says that this Harrier is more generally diffused 

 iu Sussex than the Hen-Harrier, and this is still the case. 



In the ^Zoologist' (pp. 2260-2261) we find the following 

 entry by Mr. Bates, of Eastbourne : — " I had brought to me 

 last Monday, the 20th of June, a most peculiar marked 

 specimen of Montagu's Harrier. It was a male bird, and 

 of a uniform black-blue colour. On dissection I found in 

 its crop six young skylarks, and in its stomach three more, 

 and five skylarks' eggs. Three were broken in two, and one 

 had a small hole in it, evidently made by the Harrier's beak . . . 

 The eggs were in the stomach, not in the crop." 



In p. 2953, Mr. Ellman notes that a female was shot near 

 Arundel, while in company with a male, in October, 1850; 

 and at p. 3329 tliat an immature specimen was taken near 

 Eastbourne, in the autumn. Mr. Dutton also states that a 

 female was trapped on the 15th of April, 1864, in Pevensey 

 Level, Avhich had killed three young hares, and was caught 

 in a trap baited with one of them. In p. 2060 is a notice 

 by Mr. Jcffcry of a Montagu's Harrier which he saw at 

 Chichester in August 1869, it having been killed shortly 

 before near Selsey. In November 1867, the late Mr. 

 Rowley had one which had been taken in a clap-net on the 

 Downs. This was a female; a male also got into the net, but 

 escaped; and in August 1870 the same bird-catcher captured 

 another female at the same place where he took the first, 

 also in a net, just outside of Brighton. 



Mr. Jeffery, in a letter to me, dated October the 3rd, 1889, 

 informs me that he obtained one from Sidlesham, May 27, 

 1862. I was told that a boy one day in the summer of 1888 

 brought an old female Montagu's Harrier and some broken 

 egg-shells to the late Mr. Swaysland, of Brighton, and said that 



